THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR

IBy Michael de la Bedoyere I
A Moral Balance Sheet
The Race For Victory
VERY nearly three months of war have been endured, and it is not a bad thing to try to form an estimate of what has been lost and what has been gained in this preface to warfare. As Christians, we must bear spiritual and moral principles in mind when effecting such a balance—for this alone ultimately counts.
THE POPE PUTS US IN THE RIGHT
T"publication of the Encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, must be the most important event in our eyes, since it sets the seal of the Father of Christendom, who judges without bias and solely by the highest standards, upon the basic rights and wrongs of the conflict.
The Pope has once and for all plainly condemned the act of Nazi-Soviet aggression whereby Poland has been temporarily wiped out. For a Catholic, whether he be German, British, French or neutral, excuses will not serve to palliate the crime. It was an act wrong in itself. Pius XII, moreover, in denouncing the breach of the plighted word condemns the Nazi policy of aggression, offering solemn guarantees that each coup is the last and then dishonouring the national signature. Equally, the Supreme Pontiff implies that Britain and France, having given their word publicly to Poland to protect her integrity if necessary by war, are in so far in the right in keeping to their word. The Encyclical furthermore maintains the Christian condemnation of the social system of Bolshevism and the racist philosophy, with its cruel and inhuman effects of Nazi Germany.
The Holy Father's judgment, in other words, puts the Allies beyond all question in good faith in fighting this war. But it does not justify anything which the war may bring in its train. It would not justify counter-aggression on our part, and it definitely condemns war aims of a Versailles character. Lastly, it constitutes a grave warning to the whole world, ourselves as well as Germany, that war and victory in themselves cannot achieve peace, order and justice. They can only make these things possible. A settlement can only be based upon the practical determination to replace false principles by true ones—and the true ones are to be found in the traditional spiritual and moral teaching of Christianity.
A GOOD BEGINNING
HAPPILY we can look back upon the first months of war with easy consciences. Neither in the methods of waging war, nor in the object of any campaign, nor in any declared statement of aims have the Allies departed from the spirit of Christian teaching. To all intents and purposes the war has been confined to the sea, and no serious complaint has yet been made about the Allied blockade, either as to its legitimacy according to the law of nation or to the manner of its exercise.
We may be thankful, too, that with only a few, though growing, exceptions, responsible leaders, the Press and the people have maintained a dignified and even charitable attitude towards the enemy. This is in striking contrast with behaviour in the last war. it is a sign of genuine moral progress, and, if it continues, it augurs well for the waif' we shall use victory. As to the latter, we hear little of such veiled aggression as the disarming of Germany alone or of dividing her into small pieces against the wishes of her people. The prevalent feeling is that Poland and Czechoslovakia must be restored (people seem divided about Austria) and that Germany must be helped into such a position as will give no excuse for renewed aggression, or the need for a regime of brute force and persecution. Such aims are consistent with Christianity. In so far as it is within our power, they should of course be applied also to Soviet Russia.
On the other hand, while we cannot exonerate Germany from the charge of causing the war, nor from the charge of inhumanity and immorality in her submarine and mines campaign, in her mendacious propaganda and, above all, in her treatment of Poles and Czechs, we must in honesty admit that she has so far helped to prevent general frightfulness. To our surprise she has not yet launched the dreaded air war on civilians, nor has she violated neutrality in order to outflank the Allied armies. It is not our business to speculate on her reasons, whether good or bad, except in so far as such guesswork has strategical importance. The fact is that her action has preserved the lives and happiness of thousands already, and for this she should be given the fullest credit.
HAVING tried as fairly as may be to effect the moral balance, and concluded that our cause and the manner of carrying it out are just, we may try to sum up progress made.
We are not inclined to agree with those who heavily weight the balance in our favour in this respect also. There can be no doubt that this prolonged suspense has operated in our immediate favour. It is hard to see how we could ever have effectively helped a Poland that lay in the laps of Germany and Russia except by the indirect means of a long war. Poland must have known that, and made her choice in the light of the knowledge. We need not therefore blame ourselves in conscience for having used this period to bring the democracies to a war footing and increased our strength beyond measure. Democracies cannot prepare for war in the way in which autocracies can. In these three months we have bridged the gap. On the other hand we see little reason to suppose that Germany has been severely weakened or is weakening. Our blockade is very far from complete, and we know very little of the arrangements between Germany and Russia. Nor does Russia's action in cutting off the Balkans from Germany's political grasp necessarily affect that country's opportunity of creating an effective economic bloc which may withstand our sea blockade for years and which, in fact, may become stronger.
Here, once more, moral considerations enter in. Germany's economic policy in the past has not been 'immoral or stupid— certainly not more so than ours. And there is no reason to suppose that she will be caught out there. Germany's immorality and injustice havelain in external aggression and internal persecution of her own people and her subject races. And that is where the first real weakness will show itself, where it is already beginning to show itself in Prague. Germany's own sins will find her out, because they are outrages upon the natural order and the nature of men. But it may take longer than we think.
AND OURS AND the same is true on our side. Our weakness is economic because our economic system has for years become more and more unreal. It is based, not on supplying the human and natural needs, in the way of work and opportunities, of our people and their families, and thereby creating a strong and well-founded society, but upon the making of money profits as quickly and easily and regularly as possible, no matter who may suffer, either among our own people or among other countries and races. As such this system is unnatural and immoral. Under stress it will find us out.
Our war effort depends to-day upon the work of a population largely fed and kept in well-being with the purchased produce of others. Disorganisation at home, the need for uneconomic war material and the unsettling of the crazy structure of international finance mean that we can only pay for these imports for a severely limited period. Our own home productivity for economic goods will also be greatly restricted. The savings of the rich through the years of economic " prosperity," already largely spent through the last war and its consequences, do not multiply themselves like the goods of the earth and the labour of men. How long will they last? How long will this artificial system of striving at all costs for money profits instead of work and real wealth stand the stress of war/ The war in our view will prove a race between the forces making for internal collapse in the artificial German morale and the forces making for economic collapse in our artificial economic system. And in both cases it will be a race between the disastrous consequences of immoral systems.
But we may rightly believe that because our cause is in itself just and the cause of Germany in itself unjust and undertaken in a barbarous way, this vital moral factor will weight the balance in our favour. Even so, we shall only just have begun our task, because we must radically change our moral values in social and economic life or perish as a great nation.
Of course, it is possible to work the balance out in rather a different way, the way illustrated below in the cartoon from the New York Herald-Tribune!