Th~e
Defense of Britain,
AControversy
August 16th, 1940
Sir,
London, W. C.
1.
A
remark in an instalment of my 'September Journal,' to the effect
that
if
I
had to choose between the system of Hitler and the system of
Chamberlain, I preferred to back that of Chamberlain as the 'lesser evil'
has
caused so much controversy in PARTISAN
REVIEW
that
I
feel called on
to
reply.
When
I
first read your editorial disclaimer of me,
I
did not reply
because
I
did not feel that it was necessary to defend an opinion to which
I
was not in any case committed.
I
made it quite clear that what
I
was
trying to do in 'September Journal,' was not to state considered opinions
to
which
I
was prepared to commit my whole future, but to set down my
immediate reactions to events from day to day. The responsibility
I
under–
took
in writing this document was not to discover a consistent attitude, but
to
make a truthful record of my immediate reactions to a violent and
rapidly altering situation.
I
think that a record of the development of one
open mind is as valuable in its way as what
I
assume to be the serious
commitments of your editorials. It is a difference in the kind of responsi–
bility one is undertaking. No one reading 'September Journal' would take
a 'political line' from me, but from understanding my reactions, he might
be helped to take a line of his own, that is all.
I
agree,
I
should think, with your view of Chamberlain.
I
agree also
that
a
social revolution is necessary in England. No one who has read
anything
I
have written can possibly imagine that
I
was defending Cham–
berlain, or anything of the sort. The attitude of your correspondent from
France seems to me hysterical, which may be understandable under the
circumstances. The points round which the controversy hangs are 1)
Whether one considers that the British government of Sept. 4th, 1939 was
aa
great an evil as Hitler's government.
2)
Whether if one thinks that
Hitler's government is the greater evil, one is justified in supporting the
'lesser evil' which is engaged in fighting the greater one.
Dealing with 1), there are reasons for thinking that the Chamberlain
system was preferable, for the good reason that it admitted, as we now see,
of the possibility of being changed.
I
am strongly predisposed to fight
for conditions within which it is possible for me to go on fighting for
better conditions in the future. This is what
I
call fighting for the 'lesser
evil.' I
would certainly hesitate before joining
a
minority movement
which was occupied in resisting the opponents of Hitler, however much
I
mistrusted these opponents. At the date in which
I
made my entry, there
was
not even such
a
minority movement, unless among the pacifists, as
Harry Pollitt, the then secretary of the Communist Party had published a
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