This I Believe

I am British. For 24 years I was a regular officer in the British Army in the period between the Wars and during World War II. I loved my profession, but it sometimes used to worry me that the training I received and the training that I gave to others tended to be for destructive rather than constructive purposes, though I sincerely believed—and still do believe—that it was designed solely for the defense of something good and vitally important, freedom; freedom, if you will, to say what I believe.

I used to wonder whether one day I should have the opportunity of another career in which the main emphasis was on building up rather than on pulling down. I believe that by very great good fortune, I am now in a position to contribute—what is, admittedly, the tiniest drop in the bucket—to the building up of one of the bastions of peace: the close comradeship of the English speaking peoples.

On the eve of the outbreak of war in 1939, I married an American lady. I have two young sons, both born in England. In 1947, after my wife had spent the entire War in London working first in the British, and then in the American, Red Cross, I retired from the Army and we all crossed the ocean to make our very happy home in the United States. My family is thus a completely Anglo-American one. This, admittedly, involves many problems, mostly connected with the upbringing of the boys. But I truly believe that the advantages and potentialities for good derived from it greatly outweigh any possible disadvantages it may have.

I believe that given love and sympathy and understanding from my wife and myself, it is possible for the boys to have an Anglo-American education in its very broadest sense, from the point of view of customs, literature, historical association, sport, and, above all, human relationship. I believe it is possible for them to grow up feeling equally at home in both countries and possessing a real and deep love for, and understanding of, each. I know that this is not going to be at all easy for them, or for their parents. But if it can be achieved, as I believe it can, I know that they will possess a priceless opportunity, given to few, for making a very real contribution to understanding among the nations.

Like all parents, my wife and I want to avoid seeing our children involved in a third World War. We believe that we ourselves can contribute our might to prevent this by doing all we can to maintain and increase the mutual understanding of each other’s countries. And we believe that provided we give them all the opportunities derived from an Anglo-American birth and upbringing, our children will be able to contribute far more than we can ourselves to the strengthening of a vital prop of peace.

Finally, I believe that the simple and beautiful things, which come from God rather than from man, form the necessary backgrounds for our children, since these are the things which far transcend the bounds of nationality. Riding ponies down Devonshire Lanes and across Devon Common on summer days, or trudging through the deep snow to cut the Christmas tree at our little Adirondack farm, gives them, I believe, an invariable start to lives which, I trust, may be dedicated to a cause vital to the future of mankind.