International Community Urges Restraint By Britain Amid Blitz

Activists demanded that funds for the Royal Air Force and ground-based anti-aircraft batteries be cut from the defense budget.

Geneva, May 13 – As German bombs rained down on London and other British cities, diplomats, government officials, and human rights activists encouraged Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the British military to respond only in a measured way and not, as they fear, in a manner that could be construed as disproportionate.

Luftwaffe aerial assaults on the United Kingdom last night dropped hundreds of bombs in and around the British capital and other industrial centers. Fears of escalation prompted UN mediator Nickolay Mladenov and numerous other international figures to preach restraint, both by tweets and in official statements.

“I urge all sides to exercise restraint and to deescalate,” stated Mladenov. “The violence harms innocents and serves no one’s interests. I call on both parties to the conflict to reach a cease-fire and from there, work to reduce tensions.”

Human Rights Watch Director Ken Roth went further. “Britain’s brutal blockade of the German coast is the root of this conflict,” he declared. “It is inhumane. It causes untold suffering among noncombatants. The interdiction of German shipping, on the pretext of preventing war material from entering the country, has created an open-air prison in Germany. This only serves to radicalize the population and pushes a peaceful resolution and humanitarian relief farther away. Britain must lift its siege which, while technically legal under international law, is applied with a brutality for which I don’t have an analogy yet because Holocaust comparisons haven’t come into fashion yet.”

Egyptian mediators offered to broker a cease-fire between the belligerents. “We sense that the parties are not yet ready, but we will still make the attempt – we must,” explained General Omar Suleiman. “Concern for human life dictates that we spare no effort to bring this horrible fighting to a close, as soon as possible.”

Activists demanded that funds for the Royal Air Force and ground-based anti-aircraft batteries be cut from the defense budget. “The Luftwaffe bombers can’t protect themselves adequately from antiaircraft shells,” argued Ariel Gold of Code Pink. “Think of the poor pilots and their families back in Germany! The humanity! The escort fighters that the Luftwaffe sends with the bombers can’t shield the bombers from ground fire. It’s not a fair fight, and far too many German pilots are shot down or killed. They never make it home because of cruel British air defense and anti-aircraft fire. It’s immoral.”

Mainstream media reported German figures of civilian casualties among the Luftwaffe pilots at face value, while demonstrating skepticism of British government statistics.

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