Important implications attach to the devote in the House of Commons regarding bombing operations in China and Spain, which have aroused world-wide indignation and condemnation, An attempt has been made to compare the incidents in these two countries with the operations of the Royal Air Force on the North-West Frontier of India where what is officially described as "police bombing" is carried out against unruly tribesmen. Several questions were asked in this connection and a suggestion was made that it would be a token of good intentions if Britain would discontinue these operations fu view of the American declaration for the humanizing of warfare. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prima Minister, explained the differences in the cases quoted. On the North-West Frontier, he R.A.F is not employed to bomb civilian populations, and all operations are preceded by at least 24 hours' notice to enable the tribesmen and their families to evacuate. This notice!s generally given in messages dropped from the air, or by emissaries sent into the area involved. Between the small Indian villages and big cities like Canton the process of evacuation, of course, fers tremendously for it is obviously easy for the inhabitants of 40 or 50 huts to move in case of punitive action than to evacuate a big city like Canton, even if the Japanese contention that it is an important military base is substantiated. Obviously, it is difficult to decide the matter of degree, a point which brought forth strong remarks from the Opposition in the House, but the fact that the Premier declared Great Britain was prepared to abandon this practice if it stood in the way of a generat agreement is an encouraging indication that some action may at last be taken to avoid repetition of the shocking experiences of Canton and Barcelona.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.