[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. P. M. Gedge
in his letter on Peace and War criticizes the Archbishop of Canterbury for " approving the method of bombing and killing " in certain circumstances. He continues, " If bombing is, as we conceive it to be, a sin, we abolish it by the very simple method of not fighting."
But the Archbishop of Canterbury is, presumably, debarred from advocating universal abstention from warfare by the thirty-seventh Article, which- states that " It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to wear weapons and serve in the wars."
If (as I presume) this article can only be altered by Act of Parliament, it seems to follow that the clergy of the Church of England cannot attempt to convert the nation to the doctrine of non-resistance until the nation is already so far converted as to allow Parliament to alter the teaching of the Church on that point.
I do not know whether Mr. Gedge is an ordained clergyman of the Church of England, but if so he appears to be denouncing as a sin what his Church requires him to regard as lawful.
- Many possible morals might be drawn.—Yours faithfully, Magdalen College School, Orford. P. KENNARD DAVIS.
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