12 SEPTEMBER 1940, Page 12

ARE WE TOO QUIXOTIC ?

Snt,—A thousand houses have been wrecked by air raids on the open town of Ramsgate. The bombing was, of course, deliberate and could not have been due to bad aiming, or unloading before Ping home. On the other hand, it appears that our gallant bombers, lfter

flying 30o miles to get to Germany, have instructions to return home with their bombs, if they are prevented by weather or other reasons from finding the exact target allotted them. Can we afford such quixotry? Will it not lengthen the time before victory? Will it not mean, therefore, that more British men, women and children are killed before that time arrives?

There are some who hold that the quickest way to defeat the Germans is to treat German towns as Ramsgate has been treated and that the very weapon which the Germans have used most, viz., mass terrorism, would be infinitely more deadly against the Germans than ourselves. If however we are too squeamish to do this, surely we need not go to the other extreme. In any case it is not a paying proposition to fly all the way to Germany and having got there to do nothing be- cause of some quixotic ideas of chivalry.—Yours faithfully,