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AMS signed "Exclusive to Miss Dorothy Royal, G. Bernard Shaw, 19th July 1943," one page, 7 x 8.75, responding to the typed question posed above; "Would you advocate the imposition of the Allies' conceptions of Government on the defeated Fascist countries, or would you apply the Freedom promised by the Atlantic Charter to Germany and Italy and permit their populations to elect Nazi and Fascist Government if they so desired?"
Shaw responds: "There is no such thing as an Allied conception of government. Mr. Churchill and Stalin have nothing in common except what all statesmen have in common as human beings. Mr. Roosevelt is a Republican Democrat, Mr. Churchill and General de Gaulle are militarist monarchists. All the belligerent states are mongrels in politics as well as in race, and the talk of their educating one another only wastes time. The only State with anything to teach is Russia, which has made and corrected all the mistakes the others will make over again and perhaps not correct." In very good to fine condition, with light creasing and several small edge tears.
Written in July 1943, as the Allies were invading Sicily and the collapse of Mussolini’s regime was imminent, Shaw’s response reflects the unresolved question of what political order would follow an Allied victory in Europe. The Atlantic Charter of 1941 had proclaimed principles of national self-determination, yet by 1943 the Allies were also committed to the unconditional surrender and dismantling of the Axis regimes, creating tension between democratic choice and the prevention of a Nazi or Fascist revival.
Shaw characteristically rejects the notion that Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union shared a coherent political philosophy, emphasizing instead the ideological differences within the wartime coalition. His striking claim that the Soviet Union alone had lessons to offer also reflects his longstanding fascination with the Soviet experiment and his skepticism toward Western liberal democracy, making the manuscript a revealing snapshot of contemporary debate over the political reconstruction of postwar Europe.
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