From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 30 January 1915
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Owen Matthews
Why Russia should agree to a ceasefire – and five reasons Putin might not
THERE has been a tendency among some newspapers, and perhaps still more among private persons, to demand that the murder of non-combatants on the East Coast by German ships of war and Zeppelins should be visited with reprisals. “Murder is murder,” they say in so many words, and should be treated as such. If we do not punish the Germans, no one else will or can, and the murderers will go free. Besides, quite apart from just punishment, how can we prevent the Germane from continuing in their criminal courses except by doing to them as they do to us? Therefore, if they should again fire or drop bombs upon undefended towns, we ought to behave similarly to their towns.
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