Stewart Letter #10

-->This letter has some pretty interesting and substantive allusions to people and events!

Letter #10

September 21, 1944

Dear Dad:

            Yesterday afternoon, I brought home the big radio from Simms' (minus the cabinet, since I took out the radio and speaker beforehand) and it worked fine. We had it fixed some time ago, but it went on the blink again in a short time, and since we paid about eight dollars to get it fixed the first time, and it went on the blink so soon after being fixed, that we complained to Mr. Simms about it and he had it fixed for nothing this time.

            Last night, I heard Dr. Basil Matthews,[i] a religious journalist from England and Canada, talk on the subject, "The Four Freedoms of Asia," and since he has traveled extensively all over the world, especially in Southeast Asia, he knew what he was talking about. He mentioned, for instance, that giving independent rule to the Philippines would not necessarily be democracy, but that carrying on an extensive education program would be. The new president of the Philippines, succeeding Manuel Quezon's death,[ii] represents the small group of industrialists and financiers in the Philippines, and if they were given their independence as soon as the Japanese are driven out, this man would become a dictator much like the dictators of South America, reducing the people to slavery, and thus preventing democratic ideals from holding sway. Instead we must train and instruct them to govern themselves when they are fully ready. Also, he stated something that was a surprise to me, namely that the offer that Sir Stafford Cripps[iii] made to India in 1942 still stands, and the reason that India could not cash in on the deal, was that the various parties could not get together to write a constitution, which Britain fairly required. Dr. Matthews said that at that time in India, a leader of one party could not speak to the leader of another party if he saw him on the other side of the street. If the Congress Party, of which Gandhi is the head, had been put into power at that time, the war would have been over in six months, with the Germans and Japanese victorious, because of Gandhi's non-resistance attitude. But, however, Dr. Matthews said that he admires Gandhi's pacifism, especially since he is so consistent about it, but it would not work so well if allowed to run India all alone.

            Military and civilian leaders alike are warning the people of the U. S. not to confuse victory over Germany with V-Day. It has even been shown that the war against Japan may require more expenditure of equipment and casualties than against Germany, especially since Japan is running rampant through China in their attempt to cut China in two. With little prospect of Russia helping us, in fact right now, Russia is giving help to Japan against us, and with only Britain's promise so far to send most of her navy, which we don't need anyway since in a short time we will have a navy greater than all the other navies in the world combined, including Great Britain, the prospect is no longer bright. The Japanese philosophy is so far from usual that it is doubtful that they will give up, and will actually fight to the last person. Of course it might not happen like that, but it is more likely to than not. The reason that we are being warned like this is, of course, because many are leaving war plants for work with post-war security, and this is severely hampering essential production in things that are being used up in such great quantities, which you are observing.

           

            I have finished Lincoln Steffens and Herod by Jacob S. Minkin.[iv] Since I have so much to "kill" between now and Oct. 23, when I can take my physical over again, I am going to read as much as possible and try to learn something about a lot of things that I don't know.      {Switch from typing to longhand writing with a pen}

            The only reason that I am choosing the army is because I can start college training under it as soon as my leg is well. The Navy V-12 test is not given until November (they didn't give it this summer) and then one could not be in the Navy until March 1, 1945. So I am going to go ahead with my enlistment in the EAC for ASTRP training, thus making  it more possible for me to be chosen for ASTP when I get into the regular army. 

                                                                        With lots of love and hope

                                                                             for your safe return,

                                                                                                Stewart

           

           

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[i] Basil Mathews (1879-1951) was a prolific author of religious books for lay people and young adults. Some of his titles were:

Livingston, the Pathfinder, 1912

John Williams, the Shipbuilder, 1915

The Secret of the Raj, 1915

The Riddle of Nearer Asia, 1916

Paul the Dauntless: the course of a great adventure, 1916

Three years of war for peace, 1917

The Liberator of Mesopotamia, 1918

The Ships of Peace, 1919

Crisis of the West Indian Family

The Quest of Liberty: Adventures of the Mayflower Pilgrims

Fellowship in Thought and Prayer, 1920

Yarns on African Pioneers to be told to boys, 1920

Torchbearers in China

Essays on Vocation, 1921

The book of Missionary Heroes, 1922

Tales of Tirah and Lesser Tibet, 1923

A Clash in Color: A study in the problem of race, 1924

The Clash of World Forces: nationalism, Bolshevism and Christianity, 1931

John R Mott, World Citizen, 1934

The Jew and World Ferment, 1935

East and West: Conflict or Cooperation, 1936

Forward through the Ages

Unfolding Drama in Southeast Asia, 1944

Booker T Washington: educator and interracial interpreter,1948

Through Tragedy to Triumph: The World Church in the World Crisis

Mathews held several positions in his professional life, e.g., Editorial secretary of the London Missionary Society, 1910-1919; Ministry of Information, British Government, 1917-1919; Director of the Press bureau of Conference of Representatives of British Missionary Societies, 1920-1924; International literature secretary of the World Committee of Y.M.C. A., Geneva, Switzerland, 1924-1929; Professor Christian world relations, Boston University and Andover-Newton Theological Institution, 1932-1944; Prof., Christian world-relations, Union College of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 1944-1949.

His views were common in his time, but by today's standards would be regarded as having a whiff of white supremacy - a belief that Western European culture, and its form of Christianity in particular, was superior to Asian and African cultures. Thus, e.g., that the Philippine people had to be "instructed" in democracy before they could be trusted with it. A review of his book on the Jews (The Jew and the World Ferment) suggests that he is primarily interested in converting Jews to Christianity, not respecting them in their own right. On the other hand, Mathews seems to have been a progressive thinker for his time: e.g., his book on "the problem of race."

Stewart doesn't say where he heard Mathews speak, but it could have been at First Congregational Church.

[ii] Manuel Quezon (1878-1944) was the second President of the Philippine Commonwealth (11/15-1935 to 8/1/1944). He had worked for the full independence of the Philippines. In the face of a Japanese invasion in 1942 he formed a government-in-exile in the U.S.,  but died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, NY. He is held in esteem esp. for his work for the poor and his reaching out to victims of the Holocaust. He was succeeded in the Presidency by Jose P. Laurel.

Manuel Quezon

[iii] Sir Stafford Cripps (1889-1952), was Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, Minister of Production in Churchill's War Cabinet and considered a likely successor to Churchill. He led a Mission to India in March 1942, "to enlist India's support for war effort by negotiating a settlement on the constitutional question of self-government." The proposal was, in essence, that if India sided with the Allies, it would be granted independence after the war. The mission failed, but the reasons for that failure are controversial. From the British side, Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and his wanting to keep India out of the war was a main cause. From the Indian side, it was believed that the War Cabinet undercut Scripps' efforts because it was opposed to Indian independence. Others cite poor communication and lack of coordination as key factors. The view of the facts presented by Mathews that Stewart reports here is possible, but debatable.

Stafford Cripps

[iv] Jacob Minkin was a rabbi. I found two reviews of his book, Herod. One panned it badly; the other thought it was the best biography he'd ever read! Here is some information on Rabbi Minkin:

MINKIN, JACOB SAMUEL (1885–1962), U.S. Conservative rabbi and author. Minkin was born in Russian Poland and received his education in Prague. He immigrated to the United States in 1904, earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1908, and was ordained at the *Jewish Theological Seminary in 1910, where he earned his D.H.L. in 1935. Minkin's first pulpit was with Congregation Anshe Shalom in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (1910–17), where he organized Jewish education classes and an evening school teaching English to Jewish immigrants. The program was so successful that the city's Board of Education adopted the school and appointed Minkin superintendent of Hamilton night schools. In 1919, he was appointed rabbi of Temple Beth El in Rochester, New York, a newly established Reform congregation that Minkin led into the Conservative movement. In 1922, he began writing a syndicated column, News of the Jewish World, which appeared in more than 50 newspapers for eight years. In 1929, he became rabbi of Inwood Hebrew Congregation in New York City (1929–33), before leaving the congregational rabbinate to devote more time to scholarly research and writing. He took a part-time position as Jewish chaplain of Fordham Hospital in New York, where he remained for 25 years. Minkin wrote biographies of outstanding Jewish men of the ancient and medieval worlds, a study of the contribution of Jewish thought to modern philosophy, and one of the first books in English on the history and founders of the Ḥasidic movement. His works include The Romance of Hassidism (1935); Herod: A Biography (1936); Abarbanel and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1938); The World of Moses Maimonides (1957); posthumously, The Shaping of the Modern Mind: The Life and Thought of the Great Jewish Philosophers (1963); and Gabriel da Costa (1969).