Wyndham Lewis Predicts Invigorated Democratic Britain Will Be Victorious

Wyndham Lewis, an Englishman who is primarily an author and an artist and only in the second place a political writer and pamphleteer, thinks his country will "win" the war it is engaged in.

Interviewed yesterday in Eliot House, where he stayed over the weekend after giving a Morris Gray lecture on Friday. Mr. Lewis would not expand on what he meant by the word "win." starting that his real knowledge was of art and literature, not statesmanship. But he did predict that a "reinvigorated democracy" would come out of the present turmoil.

Mr. Lewis's modesty on political matters is not borne out by the reputation earned by his three most recent works of critical comment, the latest being "The Hitler Cult." Unable to bracket him as either "right" or "left," the members of both categories and the vast bulk in the middle have successively claimed him as an ally and hotly thrown him forth-from their midst, according to their varying interpretations of his ideas.

But his biting statements of the view that the statement of both England and France have bungled European diplomacy, in the face of the new situation caused by the rise of Hitler and Stalin have provoked violent controversy across the water.

Mr. Lewis, an artillery officer in the World War, believes in the military theory, best known as that of Colonel Liddell Hart, that the best policy for the Allies is a defensive war since they cannot win by a direct attach on Germany without overwhelming losses.

In answer to a question on the present state of the war. Mr. Lewis said: "I regretted the resignation of Mr. Hore Belisha, because 1 felt that his resignation signified the abandonment of the "static war," so called, which among other people regarded as the bestrategy."

Asked what he thought would emergency eventually as a result of the war in Europe Mr. Lewis predicted "a new and reinvigorated democracy." He foresaw the liquidation of the totalitarian regimes.

"I am not a politician: so do not ask me too many political questions," he answered a query on the correct Allied policy after Versailles. "I am a writer of novels, essays and so on, and painting and drawing is my trade. I am far more interested in the Central American art being shown at present in the Fogg Museum, or in Korin's screen in the Boston Museum, than I am in anything political.

"My country is at war. I hope--I think I know--that it will 'win', as we say. But apart from that I am not an expert in such matters."

He thinks he will not be called upon to serve in this war. "My work in this war would be in say case official rather than military," he said.

Artist as Well as Author

Mr. Lewis has been in this country since the end of summer and has just finished a portrait of the president of Buffalo University. He is considering doing a book of drawings of "American Personalities," similar to one he produced in England, and except for that he has no other works planned, although, he said, "I am always writing, always painting and writing."

His latest political book is "The Hitler Cult," which has not yet been published in this country. Before that came "Left Wings Over Europe" and "The Mysterious Mister Bull." In addition to his painting, Mr. Lewis has published several novels, among them "Tarr." "The Apes of God" and "Childermass." His critical and philosophical works include "Time and The Western Man," "The Lion and the Fox," "The Art of Being Ruled," and "The Diabolical Principle.