A HOPE TO DIE FOR
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sut,—A short time ago there appeared in the Press extracts from a letter written, before leaving England, to his parents by a ydbng Englishman who was killed in his first battle in the North African campaign. As I think that many people may like to read this letter in full, I have asked 'permission to send you a copy of it. The writer of the letter was an undergraduate at New College, Oxford, in the years immediately before the present war. During those years I saw much of him, and thought him unusually fortunate in his home, his friends and his happy dis- position of mind. He was physically strong and of good ability. In ordinary times I should have forecast for him a long and successful life.
His letter sums up very simply the positive ideals for which he and so many others of his generation have fought, and are fighting, in this war. I need add no comment, unless it be to repeat the words attributed to Pericles about the young Athenians killed in war : " They are gone from our city as though the spring were taken out of the year : jxrrep et TLS Tb Zap ESC Toi; Zwatrra ceaca."
All Souls College, Oxford.
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