1 FEBRUARY 1946, Page 13

SIR,—In The Spectator of January 1Ith, Mr. Halliwell assumes that

every British citizen shares the " responsibility" for the two incidents of atomic bombing in Japan. What does he mean? No doubt there is truth somewhere behind the statement, but the two considerations he barely mentions in explanation seem hardly convincing, and in face of the utter inability of the ordinary man to have done anything about the matter such a charge leaves Lim merely with a sense of unreality. Lord Salisbury, when Foreign Secretary, Kid: " I don't understand what people mean when they talk of the burden of responsibility. I should understand if they spoke of the burden of decision. . . . With the results I have nothing to do." Are not our " responsibilities " con- fined within the limits in which they can be discharged?—Yours faith-