CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE -8PECTATOP..-1
am not a conscientious objector, but one loses nothing, I think, by being fair to one's neighbour, even if one doesn't agree with him, and I cannot think you would have given your editorial approval to the letter of "An Englishwoman" had you been in possession of the facts. To talk about conscientious objectors remaining at home earning good money is wholly inaccurate. The fact is that nobody will employ them at all, at big wages or small. I dare swear that "An English- woman" does not know of a single case where a conscientious objector has changed his job for a better since tho passing of the first Military Service Act, but I know many who have lost their only means of live'i. hood. Apart, however, from that, there is, it appears to me, a very simple way out of the present impasse. It is to let the objector prove by the evidence of his writings, or of people who know him, that he made his objection public prior to the war. It is a rough-and-ready method, and may possibly act unjustly in a few cases, but it will, at any rate, avoid trying to coerce, purely through prejudice, the most notorious objectors in the kingdom—an act of stupidity which is only feeding resentment, wasting much valuable time, money, and materials, and bringing the discipline of the Army into grave disrepute.—I am,
41 Tunley Road, Salham, S.W.
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