Letters: The Syria debate, plus Giles Milton on Andro Linklater

Syrian matters

Sir: Though Syria (Leading article, 31 August) is certainly no laughing matter, the turmoil prevailing over a ‘punitive strike’ does bring to mind the little jingle of A.P. Herbert, during the Phony War of 1940. Some great minds were contemplating a ‘strike’ on the Soviet Union to punish it for its invasion of little Finland. Herbert’s verse was called ‘Baku, or the Map Game’, and begins:

It’s jolly to look at the map, and finish the foe in a day.
It’s not easy to get at the chap; these neutrals are so in the way.
But what if you say ‘What would you do to fill the aggressor with gloom?’
Well, we might drop a bomb on Baku. Or what about bombs on Batum?
It ends:
…And then, it’s so hard to say who, is -fighting, precisely, with whom,
that I know about bombing Baku, I insist upon bombing Batum.

Thank God we didn’t bomb Baku, or even Batum; but are we any wiser than we were then?
Alistair Horne
Oxfordshire
 
Sir: Assad is not remotely as bad a man as his father.