AIR BOMBING

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 152, 30 June 1938, Page 27

AIR BOMBING

BRITAIN'S PASSIVITY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln your editorial "Britain's Passivity" you say: "To compel a nation to surrender by bombing and terrorising its Women and children is against international law. ... ." British : troops are almost continuously engaged in this process on the Indian frontier.'i This probably does not come under the purview of international law, .but its effects are identical and' it is equally immoral. Further, on April 25, a crowd of unarmed orderly people In a village in the State of Mysore were fired on by police at the command of .a! Magistrate. Thirty-seven of these'unarmed people were killed and 48' seriously wounded. Their offence consisted in seeking to honour their national flag which the Magistrate had forbidden them to hoist. Although I do not remember seeing the/incident reported in "The Post," I understand that it caused a thrill of horror throughout India. Should not we put our own house more in order before (or- at least at the same time as) we presume to judge other nations engaged in.,the same process? What Mr. Lansbjury would have said if he had been ih Mr. Noel Baker's place, I would suggest, would be • no different from what h£ has been saying in the last two or 'three .years to all the leading statesman of the world. It maybe summedVup as a realist plea for economic appeasement and cooperation, and a.peace conference now —to prevent .war,, notfto patch up .the ruins, after one. As for pacifists (you use the terms pacifists, non-pacifistsj .aftd passivists in a rather confusing way.V One thing is certain: • Britain's pas^vity'' is not pacifist.) Mr. Lansbury's own words are of interest—these were spoken to the Kulturbund, Vienna, on December 17: "We pacifists -possess no more courage, no. more virtue than other people; neither are we cowards—as many prisons in the. world testify at this moment. We make no claim to be able to cure the ills of the world by the use of smooth words, excusing evil, or by any means other than those associated with the two words 'common sense.' Religion Is applied common sense. When Jesus bid men and women ;to pray to be forgiven their sins,, and to forgive others as they hoped to be forgiven; to love their enemies and to do to others as they would be done unto, he ,was not talking sentimental nonsensfe, but telling people in a simple, realist manner that all of us need forgiveness' because all of us,- individuals and nations, have sinned against . the light ahd are continually doing Soi .; And. ofcthis there will, be no end until we are willing to accept the simple truth:'th#' we have all sinned and come shpift bf the glory of G0d.... Every statesman to whom I have spoken asserts that his couiitry is arming for defence. Every statesman of any authority in every land declares that another great war will result in the destruction ..of civilisation and in chaos. During the last war the youth of the world was enlisted to save, democracy and militarism; neither objective was accomplished. The war which the world is now .preparing for must take as its slogan 'Join up and make the world safe for barbarism.- War cannot ( be destroyed by war. We shall kill the war spirit when we substitute cooperation for competition and are willing to be partners in a world common*

wealth within which peoples will live at peace, because ■ collective justice has taken the place of violence and war." —I am, etc., ,■ A.. C. BARKINGTONj

■ The; correspondent does; not yememberr seeing; the April 25 incident reported in "The Post," but there were two cablegrams about iti one o'f which indicated that the responsibility was accepted by the Mysore Government, the head of which is the. Maharajah of Mysore. According to these cablegrams 'Xdated Madras, April 26), "the Mysore Governm,eiit issued a .statement .that the. pplice were forced to fire in self-defence" The correspondent iqjiotes this incident in a context; which;would giviei'stbe reader the impression that IhejvM responsibility rested with British droops. Mysore, however, is'a NatiW.'State of India, administered under the''Maharajah by a Prime Minister. .('lndian) ; two members of Councj].. has sentative assembly and a legislative council. There is a British Resident at the capital, but the Mysore Government is responsible 'for its 6wrf Administration. The Madras representative of "The Times" reports' to the effect that a local festival Ijad attracted crowds of pilgrims from other parts, and the Government had imposed a ban on public .meetings. "Congress Party leaders, defying the ban, held a meeting"; and,the police "vainly attempted to disperse the mob/ with lathis." Later, after a warning to . disperse, "apparently imperfectly underStood," tjie police fired. The crowd was estimated at from 5000 to 25,000. Mr. Harrington says. in reply to our reference to - compelling a nation ' to surrender by bombing and terrorising its women and children that "British trdops are almost contiguously engaged in this' process on the Indian border," and that the "effects are identical and it is equally immoral." He quite disregards the purpose" of Indian frontier air operations—the protection of peaceful native people from warlike raiders—and, . also the methods •as explained by., the 'Prime Minister of Great Britain in the House of' Commons on June 16. Mr: Chambetlain said:^-'

"I take the opportunity of emphasising that R.A.F. bombers are not | employed on the North-West Frontier or elsewhere for' the purpose of attacking the civil population. In independent air ■ operations- > bombing is never resorted to • unless at least twenty-four hours' notice has been given to enable tribesmen and their families to evacuate the area. Then, when bombers are used in close support of troops in action, a similar period of warning is always afforded before bombing- operations begin, to enable non-combatants to evacuate the area of operations. These ; safeguards are •,expressly laid down'in the regulations governing the employment of the Air Force ' tin the frontier, and they have never been departed from in any circumstances." Mr'. Chamberlain added: "If it were fovind that this practice, which is in .the ipain, I think, humane, were standing in the way of a general agreement. to bombing from the air, we should certainly be glad to abandon it/'-pßd.l ... /