The fifth wartime Easter bears the same hope that it has held and heralded through the ages. The religious festival of resurrection coincides with the season of renewal in the world of nature. Though we have watched the progress of as many springs as we have years, each recurrence brings its own wonder and newness. The dormancy of nature gives way to new life and the cycle of seedtime, growth and fulfilment begins again.

Victory will come “that at least is sure”, Prime Minister Churchill declared unequivocally in his recent address. The statement is the culmination of the sober confidence and progressive optimism he has unceasingly entertained since he became first minister, May 10th, 1940, just before the collapse of France.

Implicit in such a declaration of surety is not only ultimate victory over forces of evil, but also the freeing of men’s spirits from the darkness and hopelessness of dictator ideologies and their infamous deeds. There will be a new beginning, another spring as it were, in the history of civilization.

Self-delusion must not permit the thought that the brave new world of the post-war period will come as easily and unprompted as spring. The plans of far-seeing humanitarian statesmen and economists will remain plans unless we are prepared to expend ourselves for peace as we have had to do for mere survival.

The western hemisphere, mercifully spared the physical ravages of war and the degradation of occupied countries, is the hope of suffering peoples who are straining to hear the clarion call of emancipating invasion. When the tyranny that has sought to halt the progress of mankind has been battered out, the revivification of human decency in the exhausted lands will be the most welcome spring ever to come in the history of mankind.