THE GRAF SPEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 8

THE GRAF SPEE.

At the risk of appearing pro-Xmli'lf must protest against the spirit indicttd in the sub-leader in which you statili "It is true that by hia action t]n German commander saved the perhaps hundreds of men; but w*r » cruel, and, from the national and only standpoint, the saving of German mi< tige . . . -would have bees wortk the loss." Why "and only"? Aratl* feelings of a few hundred more widow, orphans and wounded men not irarQk considering? The important aim, linking of the raider, has tieen achieved) but in order, to save a vague abstraction called "preetijje" (which I submit doet not amount to "honour," and in thi« : case k simply not worth saving) yon would he pfej>ared to see an indefinite extension of our own and the enemy** suffering. It is this callousness that I* one of the worst effects of warfare. I must confer also my inability to understand the process of reasoning by which "A Briton'' attributes cowardice to a man (Hitler) who from a safe position refwes to .send a few hundred men to a and useless death. Had it been Churchill's action we would doubtless have commended his wisdom, humanity —and courage. A. B. COCHRAN. *