Whe Were the Butchers ?
In some respects the gravest aspect of the outrage is the suggestion that not only were German aeroplanes the instru- ments of the slaughter, but German pilots its agents. That charg,e has been made by the Basque Government, but not, as we write, convincingly substantiated. We are not there- fore yet driven to think Herr Hitler capable of condoning a crime so damnable. Such an attitude indeed would be irreconcilable with views he expressed in his Note of March 31st, 1936, to Mr. Eden.
" The German Government " (that document declared) " consider the most important task is to bring aerial warfare into the moral and humane atmosphere of the protection afforded to non-combatants or the wounded by the Geneva Convention," and it went on to suggest an international convention pro- hibiting among other things the dropping of incendiary bombs anywhere and " the dropping of bombs of any kind whatsoever on open towns and villages outside the range Of the medium-heavy artillery of the fighting fronts." That convention his not taken being, but the common laws of humanity are not .abolished pending its conclusion, and airmen are not licensed in the meantime to turn butchers. German" reactions to the Gueinica barbarism will be awaited with grave concern.. • , • , * *
