On verso of Crosswell's letter.

"I have never been an absolute pacifist or an absolute anything else. I think that an act is to be judged right or wrong by its consequences: the right act being that which of all acts that are possible gives the greatest balance of good over bad consequences. General rules, such as 'do not steal' or 'do not kill', are right in the majority of cases, but are liable to exceptions.

You ask whether I have ever been in contact with prolonged suffering of innocent people caused by war. I have not. I might retort: have you ever been at Auschwitz and watched large numbers of innocent Jews herded into the gas chamber? If you have not, then, to quote your own phrase, 'your reasoning is of necessity cold'.''