The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1917. AIR RAID REPRISALS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17077, 3 September 1917, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1917. AIR RAID REPRISALS.

.Following the last big air raid on London there arose a widespread demand for reprisals, and when the last mail to ! reach us left England,.-the matter was syfcill being warmly debated in the Press and on the platform throughout; the United Kingdom. While the demand for reprisals was loud and insistent, there were many who with equal emphasis appealed to the country to "keep its hands clean" and refuse to | sink to the level of the vilest men of [ the most devilish nation on the face of the t»arth.- "The graves of our dead,' 5 said one writer, "are already more than can he numbered. Are we to add to these the graves of our ideals and our faith?" Another, while agreeing that no words are too strong to condemn the fiendish murder of women and children as perpetrated by the Germans in-their air raids, declared it to be past undeistanding "how an act that is "criminal and dastardly murder," when carried out by Gorman* against English wumen and children, can be fair and just;fiable when carried out by Englishmen against German women and children. Beyond all question, this view, enunciated by scores of loyal men and women, is in harmony with the sentiments and traditions of our race. To drop bombs on open and undefended towns is admittedly barbarous and brutal, and it is natural that British men and women should be reluctant to use such a means of defending themselves. But it must bo remembered that the advocates of reprisals are not the champions of a policy of brutality for brutality's sake. On the contrary, they hold that the carrying out of reprisals would be the kindest and most humane polioy in the long run, a.nd the surest way of'bringing home to the Gorman people the nature of the methods of warfare .n which they are engaged. It must be remembered, too, that we as a people had the same reluctance about the use of gas—one of the most fiendish devices of the enemy—yet its use was de-J

cided upon, and that use, after all, was no more than.a--, reprisal. The question, it seems to us, resolves itself into one of defence, of justifiable and necessary self-protection. It is not merely a question of what the Huns have already done: it is a question of what they may attempt to do in the future. Robert Blatchford is among'the most uncompromising advocates of retaliatory air raids. In his opinion the temark so frequently heard'that t;the air raid had i:o military value," can only he made by those who do not understand the Germans or the German idea of war. lie says:—

To the Germans-every man, woman, and child m these islands is an enemy and the destruction of those enemies ia part of the German plan of campaign Just as the U-boats will sink hospital ships, or merchant ships, or neutral ships and will murder Dutchmen or bwedes, or Danes, or Spaniards mdi*. crimmately, so they will drop bombs upon hospitals, or churches, or markets, or schools, and murder women, or wounded, or sick, or children. To the German mind the killing of a hundred civilians and the destruction of houses and hospitals is a substantial military gam. Let us understand that the Germans have made war,, and will make war, upon all women and children and ««»<*: persons.and wounded men, and will kill, burn, and destroy as much life and property as they can. As much as they can And as much as they can. lnat is the situation. Now let us try to imagine and realise the danger. Five hundred areoplanes, divided into fifty squadrons, could strike fifty towns in one afternoon. Anyone can understand ■ona.t. In one day there would be fifty air raids, with a probable loss of fifty lives in each raid. In ten days 500 towns would have been raided, and probably twenty-five thousand persons would have been killed. Let us imagine the effect of such a series of raids upon Germany and the German people. When we have imagined those ten raids on 500 German towns, and the loss of 25,000 German lives, let us turn the picture round the other way and imagine ten German raids made on 500 English towns and 25,000 English men women, and children killed. ' Twentyfive thousand killed; and probably more than a hundred thousand wounded. T n ten raids. In less than a month! Does that bnng home the gravity of the aerial menace to the Bight Hon. Gentlemen who are such adepts at anxious consideration?

In Blatchford's opinion it Is imperative that the. people of the United Kingdom should, realise how many the Germans can and will murder if steps are not taken to prevent them. "There is," he says, "only .one:means of dofence: that is extensive, ruthless, continued attack. That is what I mean, when I say that it is not a question of whether,we should or should not attack; but only a question of when we should attack. Does anybody doubt that? Can anyone contradict or disprove it? Suppose the Germans raided us with fifty squadrons of aeroplanes and killed or wounded ten thousand persons in one day, and suppose they came again the next day and the next, would there be any voice raised against a policy of reprisals ? I sa y, then, that it is only a question of how long it will be before the Germans oblige u s to hie back. It is a mere waste of time to argue as to whether we ought or'ought not to hit back. We shall have to hit back if they hit us hard and often. And they will."' Blatchford's argument, which reflects the mind of all those who have come to regard the institution of a policy of reprisal as essential, is. based on common sense. If i fifteen Hun machines can fly to London, sailing over the Essex fields as if there were a regatta in the air, as they did in the last big raid, what is to prevent a hundreJ machines from performing a similar feat and spreading death and desolation beneath them? Apparently the only satisfactory answer is to be found in a policy which will make it clear to the Germans that every one of their air raid crimes will of .a certainty occasion the immediate exaction of a terrible and remorseless penalty somewhere in the Fatherland. If the Allies were t:> give reasonable notice to Germany that air raids on open towns will be at once followed by similar action on the part of the Allies, it would then be for the Germans to say "whether or not their women and children are to be slaughtered in the -way in which they have slaughtered so many of our kinsfolk.