England's Political Future

Extract

When General Simuts delivered his much-discussed Thoughts on the New World, he gave utterance to some home-truths which badly needed enunciating. As he warned his audience, his remarks were intended to be stimulating, lacking in ‘diplomatic ‘qualification, not to be an expression of carefully-balanced policy. Especially have his remarks about France provoked reaction. ‘A nation,’ he said, ‘that has been overtaken by a catastrophe such as she has suffered, reaching to the foundations of her nationhood, will not easily resume her nationhood again. We may talk about her as a Great Power, but talking will not help her much.’

There have been protests against these blunt, almost brutal, words, by those who love and long for the culture of France. But these protests are not to the point; the culture of a nation survives and is of influence long after that nation has ceased to be a political reality, and French culture will be no exception. But to be a political reality a nation must have a State-will which can be made effective both for national life and for external preservation, and such a State-will demands at least a measure of national unity. The prospects of French unity—and this General Smuts must have had in mind—fill her friends with dismay, if not despair. News from Algiers does not suggest the development of a wide national coalition of French statesmen and the prospect is more easily foreseen in the words of a charming French actress, depicted in Picture Post of Nov. 27th, 1943, as saying : ‘After the war there will be a lot of people to be shot in France. Then we will start again.’