The history of war is that of one man building on another’s foundations. The flashy and unscrupulous seem to come to the top. The public are very childlike: they like something that rattles. It is the age of publicity, which means that the most illiterate of trades, that of newspaper writing, becomes dominant. Judgement is handed over to the unjudicial. The man of words is treated as a man of action, providing the words are sufficiently rhetorical to reach the ears of a press reporter.

The P.M. in a conversation will steep himself (and you) in gloom on some grim aspect of the war [e.g. tonight shipping losses by Fokker wolf planes and U.boats—the supreme menace of the war, on which, with Dudley Pound, 1st Sea Lord, we have had much talk], only to proceed to “fight his way out” until he is pacing the floor with the light of battle in his eyes. In every conversation he ultimately reaches a point where he positively enjoys the war. “Bliss in that age it was to be alive”.

Why do people regard a period like this as “years lost out of our lives”, when beyond question it is the most interesting period of them? Why do we regard history as of the past, and forget that we are making it?

Why do we regard history as of the past, and forget that we are making it?

War Cabinet. Sinkings are still very grave. ¹ But great compensation in the news of the naval victory in the Mediterranean.

Winston’s attitude to war is much more realistic than mine. I constantly find myself looking at “minor losses” and saying “There are some darkened homes”. But he is wise. War is terrible and it cannot be won except by lost lives. That being so, don’t think of them.

Feeling very homesick and depressed. London’s savour has gone. A city living in the darkness is queer, and life becomes formless.

The generals of the War Office are still behind the times. “We have so many divisions”—as if divisions counted. Armour and speed count, and when we catch up to that idea, we will catch up to the Germans.

Only tonight I was horrified to hear Churchill saying, à propos of Tobruk to which we are retreating and where we hope to make a stand, “If stout hearted men with rifles cannot hold these people until the guns come up, I must revise my ideas of war”. Well, he should revise them quickly!