CITIZENS SEEK REPRISALS

Southland Times, Issue 24240, 25 September 1940, Page 5

CITIZENS SEEK REPRISALS

The Daily Mail says in a leading article that letters are pouring in to every newspaper office from angry readers demanding reprisals for the hideous bombing of London’s citizens. Everywhere in the bombed areas the same cry is heard. The demand for reprisals simply cannot be ignored. It is time to bring out the whole subject into the open. “We must again define indiscriminate bombing and military objectives,” states The Daily Mail. “Our Government says that 10,000,000 persons in Greater London are subjected to ‘indiscriminate bombing.’ That is true, but is it the whole truth that bombs which have killed and wounded thousands of civilians have mostly fallen near docks, bridges, railways, gas and electricity works, telephone exchanges, cross roads, the Sovereign’s home an d Government offices? It could scarcely be otherwise, for in big cities vital services exist alongside the homes of the people. Under the German conception of total warfare no centre of population is exempt from attack. The city itself is a military objective. GERMAN CODE “Britain is aiming at Germany’s military nerve centre and Germany is aiming at Britain’s civilian nerve centre. We must make up our minds whether Germany is attacking legitimate objectives. Hitler wants total warfare. We should satisfy him. The German code

permits the bombing of London, so we have the right to attack similar objectives in Berlin. To say there will not be reprisals against civilians is to tell Goering ‘Go ahead and bomb the people of London. We will not bomb the people of Berlin.’ Must we give an open cheque to murder?” After several noisy hours London’s night raid developed into a series of comparatively quiet and intensively active periods. The raiders persistently attempted to evade the barrage on the outskirts and penetrate inner London. They bombed the outer suburbs at random when they found it impossible t elude the heavy fire. Some bombs, however, fell in central London. Air Raid Precaution squads tackled incendiary bombs while the raiders were heard overhead amid exploding shells. Banks, a post office and a block of luxury flats were damaged in a north-west suburb. INCENDIARIES DROPPED Raiders on London last night repeated their tactics of dropping calcium carbide incendiaries to illuminate the ground. Searchlights were active and guns and lights co-operated perfectly to trap and destroy two planes in the inner London area. The raiders swept on London and many parts of the province. Bombs fell in central London and also on the southern eastern outskirts. Raiders twice attacked a southeast coastal town, two towns in northwest England, and towns in the Midlands, Wales and north-east England.