SLAUGHTER FROM THE AIR
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
Sta,—In your " News of the Week " notes you suggest that those who complain of the supineness of our Government in connexion with the slaughter from the air in China and Spain, should supply some answer to the question as to what action Great Britain can take.
It is quite clear that, short of action which would result in war, neither in Spain nor in China has our Government taken all the steps it could to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians.
With regard to China, where Japan has decided to turn a deaf ear to all protests, and to continue to slaughter Chinese civilians with redoubled energy, our Government should fix a time limit of a fortnight or three weeks, and inform the Japanese Government that if the slaughter is not discontinued within that time, steps will be taken to sever trade relations with Japan. No dclf3t America and other countries would join us in such a movement, as it is evident that nothing but such drastic action will have any effect whatever upon the ruling Military Caste in Japan.
With regard to Spain (where, until Japan started slaughter from the air, Franco held the world's record for that form of bombing), as the aerial attacks upon civilians have been almost entirely perpetrated by Italian and German bombers, more energetic measures should be taken by our Government with Italy and Germany to bring this form of slaughter to a speedy end.
By their •weakness in that direction, and by their adhesion to the so-called non-intervention policy (which meant active intervention by Italy and Germany), our Government have placed themselves open to the accusation of purposely allowing things to drag along until Franco has gained his victory over the democracy of Spain.
Both in regard to China and Spain our Government has a moral responsibility ; and it also has strong weapons, other than war measures, with which it could effectively act. The whole of the civilised world would immediately follow our Government if it used the weapons at its disposal to bring an
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