The present English situation, although popularly considered desperate, is not nearly as parlous as Mr. Hearst would like us to believe. Their industries, the unemployment situation, their psychology, are all in better health than in America, and although Mr. Priestly may see fit to throw up his hands in holy horror at the squalor and degradation of the working classes, this is unmistakably the reaction of a gently nurtured being shuddering at its first contact with the icy waters of life. Had his "English Journey" been taken in the sweatshops of New York, or in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, or in the troubled farm lands of Arizona, the picture would have contained but few lighter nuances, and the general overtone would have been strikingly similar.

Much as America hates to admit it, the Dole undoubtedly saved England. Despite the "ignominy," despite the high-flown phrases about "selling one's birthright," the Dole, in fact, if not in name, exists and must exist in our own country today. But Britain faced the situation squarely as soon as it arose. The British grumbled, dug down deep in their pockets, paid till it hurt, and muddled through.

True, there are forming, in England today, a few minority militant malcontent organizations. Oswald Moseley's Fascists, the royalist "English Mistery," are indications of the unrest of the times; the wonder being, however, not that they have sprung up, but that they are not more plentiful.

Of late the conversion of coal into fuel oil has been made commercially practicable in England. Long known, this process has been, until this summer, prohibitively expensive. By this rather sensational invention England is made more self-sufficient--the ancient British insularity is in part retrieved. No longer must the Navy depend entirely upon the Mesopotamian oil fields, and no longer will the coal mining industry languish under the threat of over-production and lack of market. British destiny may well hinge upon this one point--coals to Newcastle will become a moneymaking proposition. God save the King--though the rest of the world be falling about their ears, Britons never will be slaves.