[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Mr. Ashbee, in your issue of July 17th, gives quotations from a letter he has received from Palestine, which purports to give the view of some British Civil Servants there about the policy of His Majesty's Government. The letter shows a strong bias and proffers suggestions for organising opposition in England to the Government's policy. Mr. Ashbee, in seeking to give publicity to the views there expressed, does so in the hope that it will create support for " those English officials who are trying, under desperately difficult conditions, to administer a policy in which they disbelieve."
Mr. C. R. Ashbee has long been known as an outspoken opponent of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. It is not surprising, therefore, that people entertaining similar views should write to him. One can only hope, however, that not many have thus lost the standards of detachment, reticence and impartiality which distinguish the British Civil Service as a.whole. But even a small number of officials openly sympa- thising with the law-breakers at such a time may do harm out of all proportion to their numbers.
Finally, readers of the letter in The Spectator immediately preceding that of Mr. Ashbee may be inclined to agree that in view of the murder, arson and wanton destruction of the toil of years (which Mr. Ashbee's friend apparently regards as evidences of a laudable patriotism), recent events in Palestine are indeed " too dreadful for words," though perhaps not entirely in the sense intended by Mr. Ashbee's correspondent.
48/44 Great Windmill Street, Piccadilly, W.1.
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