Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

20 March 1940

Purani: In Sweden public opinion seems to be in favour of Germany.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes.

Purani: That is why no help was given to Finland.

Sri Aurobindo: Norway and Sweden have become pacific. Of course the Norwegians are not said to be particularly good fighters, though once the Norwegian Vikings went even up to Sicily. The Swedes are known to be good fighters, and in the earliest periods they were a great power; they ravaged the whole of Northern Europe.

Evening

Purani: The French Cabinet has resigned. But it seems Daladier will again be asked to form the Ministry.

Sri Aurobindo: They passed a vote of confidence the other day.

Purani: But this may have happened yesterday. Some three hundred members remained neutral. They seem to be dissatisfied with the war policy and also the dictatorial power of Daladier. Daladier refused to appoint new ministers.

Sri Aurobindo: What do they expect in war-time? One has to be dictatorial.

Purani: They also want a more vigorous action.

Sri Aurobindo: What vigorous action? Attacking the Siegfried Line?

Satyendra: But how long can this go on? Sitting on the fence like this?

Sri Aurobindo: What else can be done? It is the nature of this war. What is the use of breaking your heads against a stone wall?

Satyendra: That may be, but like this the war will prolong itself endlessly. England and France declared war and yet they are on the defensive.

Sri Aurobindo: Do you mean to say that for that reason they should lead an invasion against the Siegfried Line? Already Germany has more men than the Allies. And if one million men are sacrificed to Hitler by trying to break the Siegfried Line, then the war is finished. There is no sense in that.

Purani: Perhaps they are dissatisfied with the treatment of the Communists since the Government has put them in detention camps.

Sri Aurobindo: Bah! What do they want then? To let them go free and spread a revolution behind the lines? They were plotting against France, taking orders from Stalin and trying to help Hitler. What else could be done to such enemies of the country? Allow them to betray France? The Socialists also agree to the Government policy. When Blum went to London he said that he would have done the same to the Communists – only in a different way.

Purani: Some people may be saying that Daladier is led too much by Chamberlain.

Sri Aurobindo: If a quarrel starts between England and France, the war is done!

Satyendra: Every day they are spending six million pounds.

Sri Aurobindo: That can’t be helped. It was the same during the last war.

Purani: The Allies did not want to prosecute a vigorous war by helping Finland. Only Sweden refused to allow passage to their troops.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but the Labour Party was dead against war with Russia. Now they have published that they had kept one hundred thousand soldiers ready to send to Finland under the plea of “non-intervention” – a queer phrase invented by Mussolini.

Nirodbaran: Sweden says England promised help too late.

Sri Aurobindo: How can that be? Chamberlain has said that the soldiers were kept ready and they were to be asked for in May by Finland but Finland didn’t call because of Scandinavia’s refusal to allow them passage.