Review of the Book

The Tragedy of Europe
by Francis Neilson

Vi G. Peterson

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, January-February 1941]

From time immemorial, war has hung about the world like the dead albatross on the back of the Ancient Mariner, and in The Tragedy of Europe, Francis Neilson has undertaken the super- human task of dissecting its causes and placing the blame for the present conflict.

Few writers are as well equipped for the job at hand. From a ring-side scat in the House of Commons he witnessed the diplomatic maneuvers which ushered in World War No. I. What he saw he published in a scathing indictment entitled, How Diplomats Make War. Five large printings of this book have been made and foreign translations have carried it into Germany, France and Sweden. In the intervening years Mr. Neilson has continued his study of international politics, and the present volume is the fruit of that consecration. To it, and to the indomitable courage with which he has expressed his views, Robert M. Hutchins, President of the University of Chicago pays tribute in his introduction to this remarkable book.

In a day-by-day commentary on military, diplomatic and political events from September 1939 to the invasion of Greece in the following year, the author has traced the cataclysm of affairs in Europe and their effect in the United States.

Mr. Neilson recognizes that the object of war is territorial aggrandizement, but his purpose in this book is primarily that of finding out to whom the guilt of making war belongs. Quoting The Times (London) of 1912, he says:

"The answer is to be found in the chancelleries of Europe, among the men who have too long played with human lives as pawns in a game of chess, who have become so emeshed in formulas and the jargon of diplomacy that they have ceased to be conscious of the poignant realities with which they trifle..."

Long before Munich, Mr. Neilson recognized the superior strength of Germany. Nor was he ever deluded with the idea that once his bluff was called Hitler would collapse like a pricked balloon. He believes that the old system of the balance of power will have to go, and Great Britain and France must realize and express a willingness to become partners with the other states in a new European system.

It is not in Hitler, but in Stalin, that Mr. Neilson discerns the real world menace. He says, "The exhaustless energy of Stalin has been spent in raising an illiterate thief and cut-throat to an eminence Ivan the Terrible would have hesitated to occupy. ...It is because our interventionists have their binoculars fixed upon the wrong man that they are oblivious to the greatest menace of all ; the one which is watching and waiting for the moment to leap the menace that lies between the Dniester and the Urals."

Mr. Neilson does not believe the defeat of Britain would be followed by an invasion of this Continent within this generation. Further than that he has wisely refrained from making any prediction. His opinion is that a victorious Hitler would be far too occupied with the tasks of his success to be able to undertake an enterprise of such magnitude.

Like a voice crying in the wilderness, The Tragedy of Europe will not find easy acceptance. It advances an unpopular view of the war, and the radio and the daily press have successfully inoculated us against its practical iconoclasm. But the voice will not go unheard. As President Hutchins says in his excellent introduction, "Mr. Neilson is entitled to speak. ... and at tills hour, when the fate of all the world is at stake, opinions opposite to those of the majority deserve the most careful attention. Our country will shortly be faced by the decision for peace or war. In reaching that decision we must take into consideration the conclusions reached by the author of this book."