ANYONE who has wondered uneasily how he would have behaved
under torture in Korean POW camps will have read with interest a recent letter on the subject in The Times. The writer suggests that for captives to stick to Geneva rules while their captors disobey them is inexpedient: why should not POWs adopt the tactics of the Vicar of Bray? Why not, in- deed? A POW camp that gave three hearty cheers for Mrs. Monica Felton on every possible excuse would, I fancy, prove as much of an embarrassment to the foe as the stubbornest of non-co-operators. A later correspondent has replied that the man who pretends has sown the seed of doubt in himself. Yes—if he is alone in his pretence. But if a whole campful begins to behave like the Good Soldier Schweik, it will surely not be long before even Mr. Jack Gaster begins to wonder who is brainwashing whom.
Previous page
