The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical EditionVol. 5: Tradition and Orthodoxy, 1934-1939

Truth and Propaganda. To the Editor of The New English Weekly

The New English Weekly, 15 (14 Sept 1939) 291

Sir, – It is surely a mistake to suppose that a nation enters into war knowing quite clearly what it is fighting for. When a nation is the victim of aggression, it enters into war because it cannot help itself; when it is a nation that has pledged itself to help such a victim, it enters into war to fulfil its obligations. As for the aggressors in the present conflict, we may doubt whether the leaders know what, in the long run, they may expect to gain: their people have been instructed to consider itself the victim of injustice.

The clear formulation of our own aims cannot be arrived at without a deal of hard thinking by our best minds over a considerable period of time. There must be many of our own folk (to say nothing of neutrals) who are visited by the suspicion that this expense of spirit, body and natural resources may only lead to another uneasy interim entre deux guerres; there may be many amongst the enemy who are inspired by no worthier ambition than that of reversing the situation of 1918. We have the obligation to reassure the one group, and to undeceive the other.

Official Bureaux of Propaganda, whether hastily improvised, or carefully elaborated, and however brilliant the personnel that they muster, have as their job rather the propagation of existing views, than the creation of the valuable views of the future. The ideas which are the most destructive of those of the enemy are not, necessarily, the most popular at home. To undermine fundamental enemy positions, may compel the abandonment of some that many Englishmen cherish. Our position at this moment is, I am sure, the right one. But, if we are to maintain it, we must make a further effort towards rectitude and intelligence. We cannot effectively denounce the enemy without understanding him; we cannot understand him unless we understand ourselves, and our own weaknesses and sins.

The Germans will never understand why we hold opinions in opposition to theirs; if we can understand why they hold theirs, we shall have gained a position. But if we limit our thinking to opposition of Germany, we shall get no further than 1918. In order to get beyond that point, we must venture on constructive thinking which may be as critical of ourselves as it will be of Germany. And that cannot wait for the cessation of hostilities.

t. s. eliot