LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE GERMAN PEOPLE
SIR,—Miss Eleanor Rathbone, whose general effort to help the persecuted cannot be questioned, suffers from Germanophilia. The tragedy of her position seems to me that she takes for granted what she is told, without taking the trouble of investigating the facts herself. Therefore she must become a victim of that subtle form of German propaganda which, besides others, the Free German Movement and its affiliated associations have carried on in this country much too long. Allied statesmen, who should have access to at least as much information as the Free German Movement, have repeatedly stated that no underground concerted action has shown its hand in Germany. Are we to look upon them as less reliable than Miss Rathbone's German friends?
As to Miss Rathbone's apology for the inactivity of the Germans against the murderous deeds of their army and Nazi organisations, I am afraid that after what we have seen of the Danes just recently she will not find many believers. But I want to make one thing clear : either the German people are in the majority against Hitler—then her argunient that the majority can be held down by a minority is wrong, as the Danes have shown, or it is as I believe it, and the war has proved it to everybody who has eyes to see—that the German people are with Hitler. In that case, I think that even Miss Rathbone should begin to care more for the victims than for the murderers!
Miss Rathbone's reference to Lord Vansittart is not very clear. I seem to remember Lord Vansittart having stated that he wanted to give the Germans " full larders and empty arsenals." Surely Miss Rathbone does
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