Letters to the Editor
Could Britain Fight ? Professor Norman Gibbs The Censorship Plot H. G. Mu/lens
J. Cotton, E. D. Merralls Sheila Prior-Palmer
Underpaid Professions D. Burridge, H. Mills
Banker's Clerk
Wages D. J. Weatherhead Shops in the City W. J. Bakhurst
COULD BRITAIN FIGHT?
Sin,—I am not sure that there is much differ- ence between Captain Liddell Hart's views and my own, and in so far as there is any I think it probably arises from a misunderstanding.
My purpose in your issue of February 18 was to try to point out that the West's posses- sion of the H-bomb and the decision to plan on the basis of using it were simple facts which might well obscure the more compli- cated ones which lie behind them. 'Deterrent' is not a new approach to the risks of war.
In the military field the more successful nuclear weapons are as a deterrent to major war at the centre, the more will our potential enemies try other ways—for instance, limited War on the circumference. The line between 'conventional' and 'non-conventional' weapons is a fluctuating one, and limited wars may come to be defined rather by the resources committed or by some artificial limitation of action than by the weapons used. But that is not immediately true.
In the political field the uncertainties are even greater. I had not forgotten the SHAPE decision of last summer or its endorsement in December. I was concerned to emphasise, in the words of the Statement on Defence, that decisions to put military 'plans into effect are specifically reserved to Governments.' Such decisions, for democracies and for democracies in alliance, may well be difficult to take. This is no matter for bluff. But if soldiers, short of men and supplied with a much better alterna- tive, can plan on that basis, politicians cannot do so in the same way. Indeed, the simplicity of the directions given to the military planners may well add to the politicians' difficulties, for public opinion may object to making all wars major Ones. Further, the broad reasons given by the Prime Minister to justify our manu- facture of the H-bomb and of the means to deliver it might well apply to other members of NATO. But can they produce? And, if not, will their targets be forgotten and they be content to regard themselves as expendable?— Yours faithfully, All Souls College
NORMAN GIBBS
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