PEACE n LOVE

"It is usual," the playwright Jean Giraudoux wrote once, "for the two leaders of the peoples concerned to meet privately at some innocent village, on a terrace in a garden overlooking a lake. And they decide together that war is the world's worst scourge, and, as they watch the rippling reflections in the water, with magnolia petals dropping on their shoulders, they are both of them peace-loving, modest and friendly... They really are exuding peace, and the world's desire for peace. And when their meeting is over, they shake hands in a most sincere fashion, and turn to smile and wave as they drive away. And the next day war breaks out."