26 APRIL 1935, Page 20

THE PEACE BALLOT

[To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.] Sin,– -The opponents of the Peace Ballot have always walked a slippery ground. But few of them have performed such remarkable skids as your correspondent, Mr.- Livingstone Holmes.

In the first place, he objects to " the replies " being " used as propaganda." No replies have been published—only figures.

In the second place, he states that " 95 per cent. answered the first two questions as everyone anticipated." A very cursory reading of the popular Press six months ago will con- vince any reasonable person that everyone " is a serious exaggeration.

If " not one person in ten thousand is qUalified or competent to answer " the question dealing with the private manufacture of arms, which is a question of principle and not of means, then England has no business• to be a democracy, but should immediately attach herself to the leading strings of a dictator.

" If memory serves me," says Mr. Holmes, " the fourth and fifth questions cancel themselves out." Since Mr. Holmes' memory has not served him, I cannot answer this point until he has re-studied the order of the questions and got them straight in his mind.

As the Peace Ballot has already reached a total of six millions, and is still going strong, Mr. Holmes' " concrete " questions are hardly in the picture. If a nation-wide Ballot, responded to on such a scale, does not represent a solid body of public opinion, what does ?—Yours faithfully,

MA*JORIE SCOTT JOHNSTON.

45 Westminster Mansions, Great Smith Street, S.W. I.