ix       POLITICAL THOUGHT AND CHURCHES       97
organic unity their sense of duty deepens and grows
with surprising rapidity. I have seen this happen in a
town like Johannesburg. I have watched attempts
to stabilise society in South Africa by elaborate com-
pacts between its various governments and seen
them break down in every direction. I have seen the
opposite principle tried of establishing a govern-
ment which could claim the unlimited devotion of all
South Africans. In twenty-five years I have seen a
growth in readiness to respond to that claim, greater
than I hoped in the time, sufficient to offer assurance
that the Union of South Africa is now established
on lasting foundations. Since the Great War I have
watched attempts to stabilise human society by
virtue of compacts between its national states; and
yet we see that the structure of human society is
more precarious than ever it was before in time of
peace. Even the system of international trade and
finance as established before the war is being re-
duced to a system of barter between individual
nations. The sense of uncertainty is affecting the life
of every country, of every town, of every village
community. The activities of men in their normal
pursuits are so paralysed thereby that they are un-
able to exercise the power they have to produce and
exchange the goods men need to support civilised
life. Again I am driven to believe that this final
attempt to relate national states to each other on a
basis of compact is doomed to failure. I can see no
hope for the future unless or until some conscious
effort is made to unite human society on the basis of
the infinite claim of society to unlimited devotion
from each of its members.
I can only recall one political thinker of recognised
authority, Benedetto Croce, who has clearly and
firmly stated this view. I am, therefore, driven to
ask myself why a view, which seems to my mind a
truth of supreme importance, receives no support
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