LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over' those bearing a pseudonym.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.]
soberly decide : but one thing is certain—that the tone and the " Hands Off Britain Air Defence League, conducted by Commander 0. Locker-Lampson, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.P. temper of such propaganda as this "England awake I Hands Off Britain Create a new winged army to smash the foreign Treasurer : Sir George Colthurst, Bart. Campaign Secretary : Mr. C. Cooley, St. Stephen's House, Westminster, S.W. 1." hornets in their nests ! " are as destructive of progress towards The leaflet is printed in red and black (blood and iron ?). On the first page is a portrait of a type one is accustomed mentally dangerous to the security of this country.—I am,
to see in the more violent Communist and Pacifist propaganda, Sir, &e., NOWELL SMITH. a man's face distorted with fear or ferocity (probably both):' Oa ford.
his mouth wide open enough to show that, fortunately perhaps, his bark is worse than his bite. " England Awake ! " is printed as evidently what he is shouting. On the fourth page two photographs are reproduced, one of what purports to be " one of the world's largest battleships sinking in six seconds after being bombed," the other of a cottage de- stroyed by a bomb. The two interior pages contain a picture of a bombing plane and a series of thirteen statements, mainly statistical, leading up to the following appeal : " Create a new winged army of long-range British bombers to smash the foreign hornets in their nests." (As the thirteenth statement is " Germany has 10,000 gliding pilots ; England only 78. England has only 78 aerodromes against 1,000 planned by France," presumably the foreign hornets in mind are the air-forces of Germany and France.)
Now; Sir, I am too pacific to be a pacifist. I want to work for peace and cannot conceive the cause of peace being furthered by provocative denunciations of the motives or intelligence of everyone who is slow to be converted to the pure pacifist faith. But I equally deplore hysterical propa- ganda of this Hands Off Britain " type. It is, in the first place, quite senseless and unpractical, It rests upon the fallacy of competition in armaments in its crudest form. We are asked to squander our money in building and maintaining a " winged army " so overwhelming that we shall have " the mastery of the air " as once we had the mastery of the sea : as if the rest of the world is going to give up the mastery of the air to one nation without demur !
Again, because there is no effective defence against air attack," therefore we must " smash the foreign hornets in their nests." Obviously, then, we must take the initiative. If by some magic we are able to provide ourselves with this winged army without being destroyed by the foreign hornets before we are ready; we must then act with the utmost secrecy and despatch. We must choose a moment of apparent peace. Otherwise we might not find the hornets at home to be smashed. But, indeed, what is the prospect to which we are to look forward ? Even our megalomaniacs surely cannot hope to destroy all the air forces of all other nations in one fell swoop and impose a universal peace by force? Even, supposing, then, that we have preventively destroyed, for the time being, the air-power of Germany or France, shall we be able to rest in our beds the more securely for knowing that we have as a nation assumed the role of the murderous Dictator of Europe ?
The whole idea is fantastic, as indeed all attempts, under modern conditions, to achieve security by sheer force are fantastic. But it is worse. It is a dangerous incentive to the hysteria of both extreme parties in the State, and a hindrance to the sane handling of our problems, which are difficult enough without such additions. The only hope of security for our own as for other countries lies in the gradual, but not too long deferred, establishment of a common and mutual habit of keeping the peace. There is equally no chance of establishing such a habit either by unilateral disarmament or by competition for " the mastery " whether of air, earth or
HYSTERICAL PROPAGANDA sea. Therefore, there is no other way open to the practical [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] statesman and to all sensible persons who wish for security
international understanding and order as they are senti-
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