15 JULY 1916, Page 10

FOOTMEN AFTER THE WAR.

In TUE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:I STR,—You are indeed right in saying that in the very innocent remark which I made in the course of a very long speech I did not mean to speak harshly of footmen as a class. My own two footmen volunteered, during the first months of the war, and have proved themselves thoroughly manly fellows. The senior turned out a crack shot in a well- knoivn Rifle Regiment, and has been wounded severely in the service of his country. I was speaking for the British Columbia Association, and' pointed out that many who have learnt to live an open-air life during the war, instead of the indoor life to which they had been accustomed, such as drapers' assistants and footmen in big houses, would be likely to go out and settle in such a place as British Columbia rather than return to their indoor life. This may turn out to he true or not, but it is an entire perversion of it to turn it into an attack upon the gallantry or manliness of drapers' assistants or footmen. On the contrary, I sharer with you, Sir, the unbounded admiration, expressed in your issue. of July 8th, of the way in which the whole nation, and all ranks in the nation, have gone'" over the parapet " in this great and sacred cause.—I am, Sir, &c., A. F. LONDON.

Fulhaln Palace, S.W.