I DON'T QUITE see what Dr. Summerskill has been trying
to achieve since her return from her jaunt to Port Said. Everybody knows that the original Government figures of Egyptian casualties were far too low; but her own figures are very similar to those of Sir Edwin Herbert, who conducted the official inquiry. Whatever one may think 01 the Suez adventure itself, it is perfectly plair that unprecedented efforts were made to keep Egyptian casualties to the minimum and that British soldiers both before and after the cease- fire behaved with great humanity; for Dr. Summerskill to suggest otherwise is just silly. Admittedly her allegations seem to be the pro- duct more of ignorance than anything else; she seems to think once a school always a school and to be unable to grasp the fact that schools and hospitals can be fortified and turned into military targets. But ignorance in such circum- stances is wilful and inexcusable. Dr. Summerskill will have, I am afraid, to make a great many more of these gaffes before she is treated with the weary tolerance now accorded to Mr. Dulles.
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