FOOD FOR STARVING EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24742, 6 December 1945, Page 6

FOOD FOR STARVING EUROPE

Sir,— lt appears that the determination of the Allies to impose a "hard peace" is becoming weakened. They are even condescending to breast feed a nest of vipers that to-morrow will »urn to attack the source of succour. Equally venomous is the pack of satellites creeping in at the eleventh hour to steal, the crumbs from the Feast of Victory which is rightly ours to enjoy.' In games of chance the loser pays—the- same holds for war Perhaps in the future rebellious European nations will be deterred by mere mention of the words, "Remember the winter, 1946?" Yours, etc., MEPRISTOPHELES. December 4, 1945.

Sir,—Hundreds of toien are employed on urgent development .work throughout New Zealand. They live miles from town and city amenities. Rationed foodstuffs are not sufficient, so they welcome an occasional increase City dwellers are very well catered for. Therefore, I suggest we send grain, or flour, to Britain instead of reducing rations, and let New Zealanders do with less beer.—Yours, etc.,

Clarence Bridge, December 3, 1945.

Sir,—An even worse war Is now on —starvation and death—and we sit back and do nothing! If they have no shipping to spare, then send aeroplanes to take the food to Europe and to England. As has been said so often, disease knows no frontiers. Therefore, on the lowest grounds, send the food, that we do not get wiped out by one of the awful plagues.—Yours, etc., LOOKER-ON, BUT HOPING. December 5, 1945.

Sir,—A Berlin pastor in a letter to the Bishop of Chichester says: "Thousands of corpses are driven into the sea by the Elbe and Oder. Thousands of corpses ara hanging in the woods and in the neighbourhood of Berlin. No one cuts them off. Thousands and tens of thousands are dying on the country roads by hunger and exhaustion." And r„. H. S. Crossman. in the "New Statesman," recently: "Dr. Goebbels attempted to conquer German defeatism during the war by the atrocity story that the British and Americans planned to remove the children of Germany and to bring them up in Britain or America. That atrocity story would-be a merciful deliverance if it came true to-day." In ancient times the vanquished armies were decimated to destroy their power. Today, the civilian —and particularly its weakest elements, the old and the children—are undergoing a more terrible decimation.— Yours, etc.,

L. A. EFFORD. December 4, 1945.

Sir,—There is need of light from the leaders of organised Christianity relative to that which would constitute Christian practice. I find it difficult, as one who has himself-experienced-semi-starvation, to wish it upon anyone. Certain of*your correspondents either have not had that experience or if they have, are in favour of the Old. rather than the New, Testament teaching. It would be interesting, too, to learn what constitutes "a fighting Christian."—Yours, etc., ~ ' ■ i. « X F.O.W. 11. December 5, 1945.

■Sir,—The starving peoples of Europe are being denied all the pleasures of human existence. Are our humanitarian principles such that we cannot voluntarily deny ourselves just enough to help ease the European food crisis? Starvation is no blessing. It tends to crush out all the finer elements of civilisation and banish all expressions of culture. A little extra butter for Christmas would be very nice, but do we need it?— Yours, etc., VOX POPULI. December 4, 1945. [Subject to the right of reply of George Ingram, this correspondence is closed.—Ed.. "The Press."]