[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—If it be true
that the injury done to the Allies by Ger- many can neither be adequately punished nor made good, the fact should be stated quite plainly. We shall then know what we have to tace. It is this : that the Robber-State of to-morrow will be justified in assuring its instruments that the longer they fight and the more barbarous their, methods
of warfare the less likely can they be called upon to suffer or to pay. This applies to defeat ; but there is always the chance of victory. , We know to our bitter cost what German destruction has meant : we are now told that reparation, even if it could be enforced, would be quite as dissstrous. That is to say, two acts, each the negation of the other, will produce the same effects. If civilization cannot punish, civilization will not
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