[To TIIII EDITOR OP THE " SPEOTITOR."1
Sra,—A week or two ago it was officially stated in Parliament that the making of anti-aircraft guns for home defence is being given priority over all other ordnance. I confess that I grew hot with shame at the very thought of these words being read by any of our gallant Allies, or, for the matter of that, of our enemies. Has it indeed come to this, that we in England, who have always prided ourselves upon our coolness in times of danger, are falling to the level of the writers of those hysterical letters which receive far too great a prominence in certain sections of the Press ? I cannot believe that the ignorant outpourings of these coward pens really represent the feelings of even a small fraction of the nation, but the publicity which they have received makes a strong protest desirable. Would not those Mayors and Corporations, also, who bombard the Govern- ment with panic appeals for the protection of their own par- ticular districts, be bettor employed in exhorting their own citizens to show a proper courage and steadfastness in the face of danger, and to enter into an honourable rivalry with the citizens of other towns in this respect ?
I do not for one moment wish to argue that air raids against this country are negligible, or that steps should not be taken to
meet them, but I do plead for the preservation of a sense of proportion. My real object, then, in troubling you with this letter is not to argue the case for or against air defence in any particular area, but to call the attention of your readers to a masterly article from the pen of the well-lmown writer, Boyd Cable, which appeared under the above title in the Westminster Gazette of Tuesday, February 22nd. It deserves, in my humble opinion, the very widest publicity which it is possible to give it. It is a wonderfully forcible appeal of knowledge and courage to ignorance and cowardice, of the men in the trenches to the men
and women at home. No one, I think, could read this article and not feel that they would risk losing all that is most
dear to them—their lives or their property—rather than seek the safety of their own skins and their own possessions at the expense—and, as the writer shows, the immeasurably greater expense—of the lives of our brave men who are fighting our battles at the front. We who must stay at. home cannot perhaps do much, but we can at least show that we are worthy of the name of Englishman. and that we think of something beyond our own infinitesimal personal risks. If the result of this letter is to make your readers turn to Boyd Cable's article, which deserves a more permanent publicity than the columns of an evening paper can give it, it will not have been written in vain.—
[We endorse most heartily all that Mr. Hornby says as to Mr. Boyd Cable's moving article, and also all that he says in regard to the ignoble outpourings of the panic patriots.—En. Spectator.]
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