To mark last year’s Armistice Day, we republished The Spectator’s editorial
reponse to the end of the first world war. This year, here is the editorial from
the end of the second world war:
A world at peace, The Spectator, 17 August 1945
The world is at peace. That assertion is possible at last. The war that most concerned this country and Russia ended in May. The war that most concerned the United States and parts of the British Commonwealth has ended in August. It has laid unequal strains on various Allied Powers. Britain and America have been at war with Japan for nearly four years, Russia for no more than a week. China for eight — and in effect for fourteen — years. Relief and thankfulness will be experienced in proportion to the nearness and duration of the danger, and no aspect of the Japanese surrender will cause deeper satisfaction in Great Britain than the opportunity at last afforded to China, if she can solve her internal problems successfully, to continue her progress towards the great station in the world for which her vast resources, the patience and industry of her people and her latent political capacity abundantly qualify her.
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