The traumatized and embittered Robert de Ropp gained some perspective and matured during this period of support and advanced education. Like many intelligent, humane people of his time, de Ropp was appalled by the staggering destruction and carnage that had occurred during World War I. However, he was also dismayed by the spread of fascistic ideologies in Europe in the 1930s. Given his values and desire to commit himself to a positive effort, he allied with many other British intellectuals of similar inclination in Richard Sheppard’s Peace Pledge Union — only to find hopes for effective peaceful negotiation with the Nazis dashed when Germany invaded Poland and then France.