IS BRITAIN TOO LENIENT ?
Sta,—Many people are seriously asking this question—not without reason, as there is a good deal to suggest that we are fighting this war with kid gloves on! The mailed fist is long overdue, and is the only method understood and respected by the Huns, who are proving to be the same barbarians they revealed themselves in the last War.
Field-Marshal Lord Milne warns Britain against " the dangerous theory that we are not fighting the German people " and against their " innate brutality." In the House of Lords he said: " Are not the actions of the German Navy at sea and the actions of the German Army in operation in Poland fully typical of the innate brutality of the German nation as a whole? The youth of the German nation are thoroughly behind their Leader, and although we may think we are not fighting the German nation, I can assure you that the German nation are fighting us, and they are a very stubborn lot. . . . No economic pressure will make the Germans sue for peace or bring them to their knees until they receive blow after blow on land, sea and air. . . I trust these blows will be hard, strenuous and absolutely pitiless."
And how do we return " blow after blow " to a ruthless enemy whose murderous mines sink boat after boat with women and children aboard ; who bomb defenceless. citizens on land ; whose U-boat commander sank the British liner ' Yorkshire ' and gave orders that too wounded soldiers and airmen on board must be left to drown? By stupidly allowing the 9,000-ton German liner ' Bremen ' to escape! Our sub- marine did not even disable or detain her because of certain " international law "—which law the Germans continually and openly ignore!
All the world knows that German propaganda is entirely based on boasting and absolute lies. But here again our own propaganda is not replying with sufficient forcefulness to be effective ; it is weak and quite unconvincing. Listen to what Otto Strasser, ex-Nazi leader, says: " The Allies' broadcasts to Germany are on the wrong track. Give them the Hitler style—like this : ' Germans, all the world hates you. Every nation is thirsting for your blood. Hitler has mane you the world's lepers. Awake and overthrow this despot. Otherwise your homes are doomed. Britain and France are invincible.' " And now consider the statement of Sir Warren Fisher, Civil Defence Commissioner for the North-Western Region, that Britain is misusing her war resources : " What we really rely on apart from our morale is out- lasting the other side. That is our economic strength. We start with an advantage. But it is not so great an advantage, and our resources are not so immeasurably superior to theirs that we can afford to misuse them. We are doing that good and hearty! We are finding the industries of this country interfered with by controllers, sub-controllers and sub-sub- controllers appointed all over the place, showering spanners and monkey wrenches into the industrial machine—our export trade interfered with and handicapped in every possible way. By our export trade we live and by its maintenance alone can we succeed. . . . If we say to ourselves that they cannot last— that they will have internal disaffection—we have got a_ very unpleasant awakening to follow. It will need every ounce of our moral courage and drive and efficiency to win."
Thinking people cannot ignore all this, and are becoming perturbed in consequence. It simply will not do if we are to win this war—as we are fully determined to. No boxer in the ring would dream of donning kid gloves to fight an adversary with horseshoes in his gloves, nor can we afford to conform to such sloppy sentimentality. We are fighting for our lives against ruffians who will stop at nothing to defeat us, and must fight them in their own way, whether we like it or not.
Sir Kingsley Wood in the Commons has warned us to be prepared for greater air activity in the spring. In case the Huns contemplate their dastardly habit of bombing our civilian population, the Government should warn them now (not after people are killed) that any such•outrage would cause immediate reprisals on a large scale! Britons have the right to the pro- tection such a declaration would afford. Wake up, England!
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