PROTECTING BRITISH SHIPS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In reply to Mr. Moon, may I say that I did not and do not accuse the Prime Minister of intentional " self-seeking at the expense of his country's interests" ? My charges are that he identifies his country's interests with his own policy, pursues that policy by clumsy methods, and dings to it though proofs accumulate that it is not bringing the desired results. An important part of his policy was to secure agreement with Italy safeguarding British interests and a sincere friendship between the two countries. Its actual results so far have been to .lower the prestige of the_ British flag by submitting tamely to the destruction of ,British: ships and. seamen, to increase the sufferings of Republican Spain by helping to cut off the food supplies which .those ships were bringing in, and thus to increase the chances. of a Franco victory and with it the establishment, of a . Fascist Power dependent upon Italy and Germany at the gates of the. Mediterranean and on the Pyrenean frontier. ,So.• far from winning the friendship or respect of Signor Mussolini, his hostility to ourselves and France becomes plainer every day. To the evidence of that given in my last letter may he added his most recent outburst at Aprilia against " the great demo-plutocracies," with their " ridiculous, abject, nasty faces," which the Italian people "would remember at ,any time in peace or war."—Yours
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