It is a happy national characteristic that our soldiers did
not begin to grumble so long as there was any fighting to be done, in spite of the long 'drain of fully four years of bitter and tedious war. On Saturday last, at Folkestone and Dover, several thousand soldiers left their rest camps and demonstrated against certain demobilization arrangements. There was no disorder, but the passage of men to France was temporality suspended. A satisfactoey arrangement with the men was made. Incidentally the departure of the Colours of the Guards from London was delayed. Misunderstanding about pre-war con- tracts with employers seems to have been the root of the trouble : the men obtained a promise of priority of release in relation to genuine contracts that were admitted to be in order, while consideration was to be shown also to men with contracts imminent. On Monday men of the Royal Army Service Coupe left camp at Osterley Park and drove to Whitehall to explain their grievances ; and there were protest meetings at Brightolt and elsewhere. The War Office has explained, quite reasonably, that administrative services cannot be disbanded as rapidly as combatant services.
