22 FEBRUARY 1935, Page 6

Nothing, I suppose, that has happened under the Nazi regime

in Germany has aroused feelings of greater repul- sion in this country than the beheading of two women in Berlin on Monday. And for an accumulation of reasons. We do not inffict the capital penalty for espionage in peace-time. We do not like executing women at all. There is something much more revolting about the bloody accompaniments ..of decapitation than. about hanging. And, even ,given decapitation, the stroke of the headsman's axe is, of the two, a shade more barbaric than the fall of the guillotine's blade. Ifowever,. I suppose it is all good and Nordic and, beyond our, under- standing. Long may it remain so. .