[ 16] 



and let not the undying reproach of human- 

 ity rest on us as on the Germans." Two 

 years changed me into an ordinary barba- 

 rian. A detailed tally of civilians killed by 

 our airmen has not, I believe, been pub- 

 lished, but the total figures quoted are not 

 far behind the German. 



Could a poll have been taken a week be- 

 fore the Armistice as to the moral justifica- 

 tion of the bombing of Berlin for which 

 we were ready how we should have 

 howled at the proposer of any doubt ! And 

 many Jonahs were displeased that a city 

 greater than Nineveh, with more than the 

 threescore and ten thousand who knew not 

 the right hand from the left, had been 

 spared. We may deplore the necessity and 

 lament, as did a certain great personage : 



" . . . Yet public reason just 

 Honour and empire with revenge enlarged 



. . . compels me now 

 To do what else, though damned, I should abhor." 



