Angus Maude, MP, Peregrine Worsthorne
The Despised J. C. Longhurst, Satoh el Sera°,
Charles Wrong, A. S. Parker
Defence Cuts Lionel Harrowitz Government by Old Etonians W. E. Kaye Czech Resistance J. Josten An Eruption of Turquoise Margaret Sparrow Pell Melt Waller Brookes, Beatrice M. Fairburn Trains and Punctuality Alan Wykes
The Supreme Deterrent THE SUPREME DETERRENT SIR,—Half a page of Mr. Wayland Young's views on my article revealed only two things : first, that he had not even d:tnly grasped the point; second, that his own idea of a foreign policy is to secure 'the goodwill of foreigners, including brown ones.' It is tempting to try to explain to Mr. Young what foreign policy is all about; but I fear he would be embarrassed to discover, for example, how funda- mentally similar arc the principles (and even some- times the practice) of Lord Palmerston and Mr. Nehru. Let me confine myself, therefore, to the hydrogen bomb.
The only point in having the bomb is in order to serve notice on other countries that nuclear aggres- sion against this country will result in the total destruction of the aggressor as well. If we do hot have the bomb ourselves, we must rely on the Americans to do the deterring for us. In the long run that would mean buying protection on the Americans' terms—in other words, being a satellite. Mr. Young must have a higher opinion of their wisdom and disinterestedness than I have if he thinks that would guarantee us either 'peace or prosperity.'
I do not find it hard to imagine future circum- stances in which Russia and America might fight a war in which this country's vital interests were not deeply concerned. Stranger things have happened before. In such a case, I would prefer a chance to remain neutral to the certainty of destruction. Wouldn't anyone? Only our own possession of the hydrogen' bomb could give us that. There are no 'advantages to be gained if we have to execute our threat' to drop it. There are, however, certain advan- tages if the threat works. Staying alive and free, for example.—Yours faithfully,
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