LONDON LETTER
321
of every kind must obviously decline as a result of war, but given the
present structure of society 'and social atmosphere there is a point beyond
which the decline cannot go. Britain may be fascised from without or as
a result of some internal revolution, but the old ruling class can't, in my
opinion, produce a genuine totalitarianism of their own. Not to put it on
any other grounds, they are too stupid. It is largely because they have
been unable to grasp the first thing about the nature of Fascism that we
are in this mess at all.
8.
From over here, it looks as though there had been a very rapid
advance towards a totalitarian war economy in the last few months–
rationing spreading wider, Bevin's conscription of certain classes of
workers, extension of government controls over business. Is this impres·
sion correct? Is the tempo growing more or less rapid? How does the
man in the street feel about the efficiency of the war effort? How much
does he feel in his daily life the effect of these measures?
Yes, the thing is already happening at great speed and will accelerate
enormously in the coming months. In a very little while we shall all be
in uniform or doing some kind o.fcompulsory labour, and probably eating
communally. I don't believe it will meet with much opposition so long
as it hits all classes equally. The rich will squeal, of course-at present
they are manifestly evading taxation, and the rationing barely affects them
-but they will be brought to heel if the predicament is really desperate.
I don't believe that the ordinary man cares a damn about the totalitarian–
isation of our economy, as such. People like small manufacturers, farmers
and shopkeepers seem to accept their transition from small capitalists to
State employees without much protest, provided that their livelihood is
safeguarded. People in England hate the idea of a Gestapo, and there has
been a lot of opposition, some of it successful, to official snooping and
persecution of political dissidents, but I don't believe economic liberty
has much appeal any longer. The change-over to a centralised economy
doesn't seem to be altering people's way of life nearly
~o
much as the shift
of population, and mingling of classes, consequent on conscription and
the bombing. But this may be less true in the industrial North, where on
the whole people are working much harder in more trying conditions, and
unemployment has practically ceased. What the reaction will be when we
begin to experience hunger, as we may within the next few months, I don't
prophecy. Apart from the bombing, and the overworking of certain cate–
gories of workers, one cannot honestly say that this war has caused much
hardship as yet. The people still have more to eat than most European
peoples would have in peacetime.
9.
What war aims does the left-and-labour movement now agree on?
How sanguine are you about these aims being carried out? How much
pressure is there now on the Government to proclaim Socialist war aims?
On the question of war aims, of policy towards Europe and Germany in
the event of victory, does there seem to be any radical difference between
the Labor and Tory members of the Churchill Government? How definite
are the plans for the "social rebuilding'' of England after the war?
