To the Editor of The Times. Sir, I am dictating this letter from a bed of illness. I need not say that since the middle of August last year the one absorbing topic in my mind has been the War and the steps which should be taken to bring victory to Great Britain and her Allies. I have not intervened in any public discussion, much as I have wished to do so, but I feel that on this vital question of reprisals, by which I mean only raids by British forces which must involve the death of innocent non-combatants, as to which the conduct of the German nation has roused the just indignation of every right-thinking man, I have no right to keep silent. I do not refer to raids upon arsenals, military depots, or the armies opposed to us. For 12 1/2 years I discharged the duties of Attorney-General, and had to consider and advise the Government of her Majesty Queen Victoria on this very question of reprisals, and did not hesitate to approve and advise that they should be taken on more than one occasion, as for instance in the case of slave-traders or savage nations whose people could in no other way be brought to respect the power of the British Empire. The case of reprisals by British forces against Germany is entirely different. The adoption by his Majesty’s Government of reprisals such as I describe, and their execution by British forces, will not in any way end or even shorten the war. They would simply involve this country and the British Empire in being party to a line of conduct condemned by every right-thinking man of every civilized nation. The British Empire and her Allies are right, and have the cause of justice on their side. They will gain the victory over their enemies, which victory will enure for the benefit of the civilized world. God grant that victory may not be sullied by the recollection of any conduct of which the British nation and her forces would forever feel ashamed.
I am your obedient servant.
ALVERSTONE, Winterfold, Cranleigh, Surrey, Oct. 19.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, The Allies have committed themselves at Stuttgart to the policy which Sir Edward Clarke calls “savage wickedness” and Professor Pollard “undiluted barbarism”. it is too late to insist upon “Hague Conventions”. The Germans violated them; we, however tardily and half-heartedly, have in self-defence followed suit. The Germans used gas; we now do likewise. German airmen treated non-combatants as combatants; is it expedient for ours to do, or rather to continue doing the same? Apart from casuistical problems, which The Times probably cannot afford space to discuss, that is the question. Professor Pollard says that reprisals would be “futile folly,” because “the heart of the German Staff” would not be moved thereby; but it does not follow that the mind of the German Staff would not be moved by the effect that reprisals would produce upon a nation which has been taught to believe that Zeppelin raiders may raid with impunity. If reprisals would be useless there is nothing more to be said; but would Professor Pollard condemn them if they achieved their aim? When villages were burned in ‘57 the innocent suffered with the guilty; but the men who crushed the Mutiny were not deterred by the reproach of barbarism. The barbarism against which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle protests is that of leaving his countrymen to perish without making an effort to save them.
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I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
T. RICE HOLMES. favonmoro, Roehampton, b.W., Oct. 19.