15 SEPTEMBER 1961, Page 14

SPAIN

SIR,—If, as I maintain, the figures given about Badajoz and Malaga by Senor Suarez were wildly exaggerated, he cannot justify himself afterwards by saying that the actual numbers do not matter. No new principle was involved in such massacres. The slaughter of civilians 'for psychological reasons' is abominably cruel, whether accomplished by bom- bardment or otherwise, and Spain saw far too much of it before the civil war began. It is surely the part of a patriotic Spaniard at this time of day to refrain from rekindling hatreds as it is the duty of a journal- ist to get his facts right.