RUSSIA'S LOSSES
Sts,—In the leading article in The, Spectator of September 3rd you say: " Russia today is sacrificing men by the thousand where the .Allies are not sacrificing them by the hundred or the fifty or the twenty. That has been so not for weeks only or months, but years." For The Spectator to make such a statement is incredible. Excluding the " sacri- fices " made by the Australians and Americans in the Pacific area, what about those made by the navies, merchant navies and air forces of the United Nations, not counting the Russians? From home stations alone fifty-eight bombers were lost a few days ago—that is 290 men at least. Yesterday twenty-six or more bombers were lost-13o men at least— and so it goes on every day and has for the last two years. I do not wish to belittle the suffering of the Russians nor their great achieve- ments, but they have only Russia to defend. When France fell and the British stood alone with the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific, Malta and Egypt, as well as the British Isles to defend, Russia certainly did not come to our aid—instead she made a pact with our enemies. Do our sacrifices in France, Belgium, Norway, and the Malay Straits count as nothing today? I have been a reader of The Spectator for years and I pass it on to the Forces—this number I shall burn.—Yours faithfully, 3r8 Hagley Road, Birmingham, r7. E. M. BARTON.
[Our statement is perfectly accurate, and in its context it cast no reflection whatever on any Allied country._ It is a pity to burn paper that is needed for salvage.—En., The Spectator.]
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