To the Editor of the Crimson:

While in general agreement with your editorial LOCKING THE BARN DOOR, I would like to take exception to certain statements. You call the Harvard petition urging the President to raise the embargo on Spain "ill-timed and misdirected" and urge Harvard men "instead of petitioning in behalf of a practically deceased Spanish Republic, to take a more constructive line."

I am surprised to see that the Crimson has fallen prey to the same headline propaganda which at first affixed the "red" label to the Spanish Government; later, by a process of wish-thinking, won the war several times for the fascists; and now so gleefully sounds the funeral dirge of the Republic. The facts should be understood. Catalonia itself is not yet conquered, while the MadridValencia sector remains entirely firm. In the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, all but a very narrow strip of seacoast was taken, only to be won completely back within two years.

It is never too late to amend a tragic blunder and enable a sister democracy to exercise its legal right of purchasing arms from us. While it is true that this should have been done long ago, it required the unbridled aggression of the past year in Austria, Czechoslovakia, China, and Spain, finally to convince millions of Americans that sooner or later, unless the aggressors were stoped, the peace and security of their own democracy would be threatened.

It is not too late. When the thief is still in sight, it is well to apprehend him first and worry latter about providing a better lock for the barn door. Your editorial, it would seem, recommends the reverse procedure. Avram Goldstein '40