INFORMAL NOTES OF MR. TAYLOR FOR DISCUSSION WITH  
 MSGR. MONTINI ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1942,   
                 ON THE SUBJECT OF BOMBING                  
 
                                                            
 
 
I am not clear whether the Holy See has condemned the bombing of London,   
Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, Coventry, Manila,  Pearl Harbor, and places   
in the South Pacific. A list, together with photographs of Catholic Church   
property in England damaged by German bombs up to February l, 1941,  
                        is attached.                        
 
                                                            
 
 
It might be misunderstood, now that the United Nations are strong enough to bomb military objectives in Germany, to  
raise the question, because there will be many conflicting reactions. Of   
course, civilian populations will suffer because of the very character of   
bombing itself, as it can not be controlled as can some other features of   
war making; but it is not intended that the United Nations would engage in   
indiscriminate bombing as was done in the British towns and is evidenced   
by the long list of hospitals, churches, private residences, and   
commercial centers which a visit to those communities will indicate. That   
is especially true in London, where the whole region around St. Paul's is   
leveled to the ground and where no military objectives existed; nor did   
munition production plants exist in that area. There is the danger of the   
Vatican's being called partisan. It has already been called so.   
Deplorable inhumanities in Germany against civilian populations are  
even more reprehensible than the attacks on all her neighbors whom she   
invaded.    The Germans set a pattern for ruthlessness; the United Nations   
have not initiated it nor copied it. The Germans deliberately bombed many   
of the peaceful cathedral towns of England. The United Nations  
have no such objective. Their objectives are carefully planned. The   
civilian population in military areas, munition and vital transportation   
centers, have been warned and should leave those centers. The workmen in   
the military and munition plants in those areas are as truly  
military as those at the front line of battle. Now that the rising power   
of the United Nations air forces has exceeded that of Germany, it might be   
interpreted that pressure was being exerted by the Axis on the Holy See   
 in an effort to limit an important military arm which the