Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1940. NOT IN REPRISAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 301, 27 September 1940, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1940. NOT IN REPRISAL.

It may seem more than a coincidence that sharp on the heels of an outcry in Britain for reprisals against Berlin for the raids on London and the intensification of the German air force attacks on the Empire capital comes news of severe punishment being meted out to objectives in the heart of Berlin, but it may be taken as a fact that the British raids are in no •way a direct reprisal. Rather are they a part of the growing air offensive which the building up of the Royal Air Force has enabled the military leaders to launch. The raids on the German city, have no doubt resulted in the loss of civilian lives, causing the newspapers and radio commentators to cry out against the murderous pilots who have carried out the work at Mr Churchill’s orders; but the result in this respect is in no way different from that which has existed in London for several weeks, where civilians whose homes have crowded close to industrial plants that are legitimate targets in time of war have been killed and injured by air bombs. It is certain that while the Luftwaffe, personally directed by Goering, has been dumping its loads of bombs indiscriminately on London, even when, because of cloud conditions the ground was not visible to the pilots, the bomb-aimers of the Royal Air Force planes have taken pains to select the targets, allotted to them before they left Britain. Apart from the fact that the raids have shown that the Air Force , power is stepping up there is the fact that the people of Germany are being given a sa utar/ lesson. For years they were told l y Goering, and it is on record that they placed full reliance on the declaration, that there was not a foreign aeroplane that could cross the German borders. How shocking, then must be the realisation that the Royal Air Force can penetrate the Reich s so-called impenetrable defence at will, pick out its objectives at leisure (pilots have testified how they have cruised above the target areas awaiting a favourable opportunity to swoop down), . and cause damage the severity of which can only be guessed at. .Throughout her long career of aggression Germany has suffered no military encounter c-n her own territory, so that the attacks by the Royal Air Force, so widespread, so persistent, and so determined, must have a great and sobering effect on thousands if not millions of the German people. For the first time Germany is suffering something ot the pangs she has often visited on her neighbours, and the collective effect may go a long way toward shortening the period of the war. It cannot be suspected that Britain is attempting anything in the nature of a reprisal; the raids must be recognised as a real demonstration of her resolve tO ( throw all her resources into the struggle that has for its goal freedom for mankind.