11 AUGUST 1917, Page 11

SIR ERIC GEDDES.

LTo rag Ensues or THE "SPECTATOR."J Ste,—Ia your last comments on the "News of the Week " you quote Sir Erie Geddes's smiling admission that (like most railwaymen) lie had been "a railway porter," and was proud of it. He added that he was a Unionist and the son of a Unionist, but, as you say, had forgotten party politics in Francs and in the Navy. What he omitted to say is that he is an Anglo-Indian and the eon of an Anglo-Indian, a fact which may account for the ease with which lea has, for the time being, rid himself of party preposeessions and prejudices. There is no reason why we should be ashamed of belonging to a party, a sect, a Church, or any other device for meeting with Britons like minded to ourselves. But it is well that war should remind us that we are Christians in spite of sectarian divisions, and Britons for all our hereditary and traditional belief iu the practical working of our two great historical parties. After sill, party is only a domestic expedient, and has nothing to do with our relations to other nations, whether friends or enemies. We are all one in our grateful admiration of our French. and Italian Allies; in our sympathy for the sufferings of Belgium and Serbia. and our desire that due retribution shall be exacted for their wrongs; in our belief that the United States will rival our own improvisation of a great and powerful Army; in our common re- sales that German militarism shall be taught, once for all, that aggressive war is a crime when it succeeds, and a folly when it fails. Many of us rejoice to know that a capable Anglo-Indian has been chosen to take a leading part in asserting our cause by the

only means open to us.—I am, Sir, de., J. D. A.