MEDICAL AID FOR SPAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 22515, 7 December 1936, Page 5

MEDICAL AID FOR SPAIN.

TO TH» EDITOR. Sir, —Dr Brodie’s attitude on medical aid to Spain is “ incomprehensible,” but Dr M’Millan’s letter leaves no doubt about his; he is a specialist on the atrocities of (he Franco troops. So are all the followers of Marx; they will soon be telling us that every Russian ship calling at Barcelona is bringing a big Red Cross unit for the relief of the victims of the “ barbarity of Fascism.” By the way, I wonder what does the doctor think Fascism is. Bishop Biodie did not take a partisan attitude nor object to sending “ medical aid to Spain,” and 1 do not think that Bishop Brodie or Bishop West-Watson require any lead from the Dunedin doctor where “ thousands of defenceless adults and children ” are in question. Simple credulity may he responsible for the continued repetition of simple people of such statements as “ the present Government of Spain is a constitutional Government; every decent worker lias rallied to the Communists.” Smilar statements have been read over and over again by those who are in ignorance of the facts, and have been repeated in good faith; but when an educated man tells us that General Franco is responsible for the massacre of women and children, and that the teachings of Christ are his motive for urging assistance for one side in the conflict, it is nothing hut disgusting hypocrisy. Our Christian doctor made no protest when the Reds were shelling the Alcazar of Toledo, where women a«i children had taken refuge and whose only escape was through the ranks of the enemy. He now sheds tears for the inhabitants of the fortified city of Madrid, whose citizens have been warned for three months of the impending attack, and whose women and children still have means of leaving the city without passing through the lines of those “ dreadful ” Moors. Will someone please reconcile these two statements of the Christian doctor: “ A medical unit takes no cognisance of colour, race, religion, or partisanship ” and “ The need of the people of Spain is greater than that of the mercenaries who are fighting for a rebel general”? Talk of intellectual Homlinis! Why, they are amateurs when we match them with onr local Good Samaritan. —I am, etc., Anti-humbug. December 5.