Looking Back

From January 1944

Momentous Days

With the New Year comes the inevitable impulse to look back and to look forward.

A year ago we were reaching “the end of the beginning”. The long retreat had been changed into an advance. But our armies were still engaged in a hard struggle in North Africa; the U-boats were taking grievous toll of our shipping; and enemy air-raids were still, not infrequently, causing heavy damage in our cities. To-day Africa and Sicily have been cleared of the enemy. Italy has capitulated, the U-boat menace has been largely removed, and our skies remain almost clear of hostile planes. We have indeed much to be thankful for in the progress of the war. The year has also seen three great conferences whose consequences promise to be far-reaching – those at Washington, Cairo and Tehran. The stress laid at Tehran on personal friendship as a basis for sound diplomacy is one of the hope-inspiring aspects of these international gatherings, as is also the forward-looking, constructive nature of some of the topics discussed. The hateful and distressing side of the year’s happenings has been the continued brutality shown by the Nazis towards the conquered peoples and towards the Jews, and the appalling destruction which we ourselves, under the necessities of modern war, have had to inflict on Germany. We enter the new year with the earnest hope and prayer that before its close, such things will have ceased – for ever.

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