War & Peace Quote by Stafford Cripps

Cripps is drawing a tight circle around what counts as legitimate dissent, and he does it with the velvet glove of civility. The line flatters the would-be critic - your arguments will be met with "respect and sympathy" - while quietly setting the price of admission: they must be "reasoned", "suggestions", and above all calibrated to "the full difficulties" of a country at war. In other words, speak, but only in a way that already accepts the government’s framing of necessity.

The phrasing is telling. "Make allowance" turns catastrophe into a ledger entry; it implies that hardship is an objective constraint, not a political choice. "State of war that exists" sounds almost natural, like weather, sidestepping who declared it, how it’s being waged, and who bears the costs. Cripps, a Labour politician who served in the wartime coalition and later helped steer austerity-era Britain as Chancellor, is speaking from a culture where unity was a civic duty and rationing, conscription, and secrecy were daily facts. The promise to "listen" functions less as openness than as containment: the debate is welcomed only if it reinforces morale, competence, and realism.

The subtext is a warning disguised as etiquette. Emotional protest, moral outrage, or structural critique can be dismissed as unserious because they fail the "reasoned" test. Yet the sentence also reveals anxiety: governments in wartime need consent, not just compliance. Cripps is offering a bargain - your voice will be respected if it helps manage the war, not question its premises.