SIR, —It must be unpleasant for editors to be told that
readers of many years are cancelling
their orders for the paper, but I suppose they ▪ learn to aecept that. All men do not think alike and men of strong feeling will act strongly.
I write, however, as one who agrees with what has been the position of the Spectator in the Suez crisis. In my opinion the Govern- ment has been wrong from the beginning and is responsible for the trouble that has arisen. The view stated in your leading article this week seems to me to give what would have been the correct procedure for Britain and France to take once the war between Israel and Egypt had started. If it was thought that this war would imperil the peace of the world and that the United Nations, which is the authority provided by the Charter, was unable or unlikely to act quickly enough, Britain and France ought to have brought the matter as one of extreme urgency before the Security Council and offered the services of their forces to stop the war. And if the Security Council had agreed that immediate action was neces- sary they would no doubt have accepted the offer. Britain and France would then have had a warrant for moving in, but it is unlikely that the Security Council would have given them authority to maul one of the combatants. By failing to take this way, which was the only legitimate way, Britain and France put them- selves in the wrong, and their treatment of Egypt underlined the wrong and made their motives thoroughly suspect. I have touched on what might be said to be only a matter of procedure in which a mistake may have been made, but the circumstances were such that there should have been no mistake. The way of reason and good faith was plain, the issues were most momentous, and Britain and France cannot be excused for failing to take the obvious way. They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. They should now be entirely acquiescent to the require- ments of the United Nations. — Yours faithfully,
100 Braid Road, Edinburgh, 10
T. ANDERSON
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