´óÏó´«Ã½

GN- A lot of that was to subsidise Germany, so they didn’t end up having some Communist revolution.

NH- That’s it yes.

GN- How did you feel about that, that a lot of the time the British people were suffering to subsidise a former enemy?

NH- As I say- the people in this country didn’t think as they do now, they didn’t question. They accepted what was happening as the right thing to do. And a lot of us didn’t know. You know, you weren’t told these things. Lets face it. You didn’t have the media, as you do now. There’s no television. All you had was a radio, which gave the news for about ten minutes at a time. Your news was more communal news. So that, it was a different way of life, really, you didn’t hear as much as you hear now. Things weren’t dug up by the media the way they are nowadays; it’s a totally different attitude that media have now to what they had then. But you just accepted what came; we must have been a bit daft (laugh).

But you didn’t, it was they way you were brought up. And the fact that the communication wasn’t there. You just lived in your local area, more or less. It wasn’t until television and that sort of thing came that the world’s opened up. It was just a case of the world having to get itself pulled together then. They were starving. They were just ordinary people like us starving, so I don’t suppose we would have begrudged it to them. You didn’t think that way.

GN- Do you have any thoughts on whether it’s better that there was- during the war- this sense of duty, unquestioning rather, as opposed to today, where people have a more independent view?

NH- Well, I think maybe today, people go just a little bit over the top in questioning. I sometimes think in life you’ve got to accept, and not question too much, otherwise you just torment yourself. There’s a lot of things now that’s got to be analysed, there’s so much analysis in everything. Nobody can accept anything as it is, in that particular spot. It’s got to be analysed, and spread out, and put into little tiny pieces. And sometimes it’s much nicer just to say well that’s it, and accept it. But it's a different world. There’s nothing you can do about it. The generations have created all this- I sometimes think we go too far. And I think sometimes we should accept just a little bit more.

GN- And if we hadn’t, as it were, surrendered the personal will to the majority- sticking together thing, the war could have gone a lot differently.

NH- Yes. And a lot of people today would probably shy off going to war. And would leave it to other people. And I don’t think that happened then. Everybody took a hand in it. And either the people who were conscientious objectors- and said their piece- they still went out and worked as ambulance drivers and things like that. They didn’t back out altogether, they just didn’t kill anybody. But I have a feeling that if it were to happen now, it would be slightly different. It’d be more people wanting to shut their eyes to what was happening and not facing it. Because there’s never been peace, since that war. It’s never been cleared up. They’re still going on. And every time there’s the news now, there’s somebody else being killed- suffering because of somebody else’s greed. And we just let it happen. So when will all that end? A good major fight about all this might clear it all up. Who knows?

GN- Were you surprised that nothing blew up out of the Cold War, with the Soviet Union?

NH- Well, you just hoped for the best it wouldn’t. But I do- I think an awful lot of this was a lot of scare mongering. Because they knew as well as we knew that if they started using nuclear weapons, everybody was going to go, it wasn’t just us. I think the fear is the Asians, more than anything else. The eastern countries now are to be more feared. Because they’re more fanatical. Their faith is more fanatical.

GN- You’re talking about Islam?

NH- Yes. I think that is where the danger lies. In the likes of Iraq and places like that. That’s where it’s stirring up a bit. But I think Russia knew fine well that if they sort of used nuclear weapons, that it would affect them just as much as anybody else. They would have killed themselves. But I don’t know whether that’s happening in the middle east or not. I don’t know whether they realize that- that they’re gonna wipe everybody out if they use nuclear weapons. I don’t know whether I’m right or not.

GN- No.

NH-(laugh)

GN- Well, on that rather uncertain note, I think… thanks very much!

NH- Ok. Not at all!

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.