REPRISALS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4491, 17 October 1941, Page 3

REPRISALS

THE DEMAND INCREASES. “Scientific investigation shows that the demand for reprisals is on the increase. Six months ago, in October, the Gallup Roll asked the question: ‘ln view of the indiscriminate bombing of this country, would you approve or disapprove if the R.A.F. adopted a similar policy of bombing the civilian population of Germany?’ The vote was exactly evenly distributed. Forty-six per cent, said they would approve of indiscriminate bombing of Germany, forty-six per- cent they would not. The remaining eight per cent expressed no opinion either- way. The Gallup Institute has just completed another poll on a question almost exactly the same as last October’s, and this time the answers show that fifty-three per cent would approve the policy of bombing civilians in Germany, and thirty-eight per cent would disapprove, an increase of seven per cent in favour. Nine percent had no opinion either way. That isn’t a very big increase, rather smaller perhaps than all the discussion in the newspapers might have led one to expect. An analysis of the voting reveals some rather interesting things. It reveals that people who have been blitzed tend to be less anxious for revenge than those who haven’t. For instance, in inner London there is a small majority against reprisals (forty-seven per cent against, forty-five per cent for), whereas in Cumberland, Westmorland and North Yorkshire, so far a comparatively immune area in north-west England, there is a thumping big majority for revenge (seventy-six per cent for, only fifteen per cent against)—the biggest pro-reprisals vote of any district.”—Mr Gerald Barry in a recent broadcast talk.