19 DECEMBER 1931, Page 16

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The supreme test for

any "conscientious objector" is this : is he willing to watch his wife ravished or murdered, or his children tortured before his eyes, without doing anything to save them ? • If not, then his position is logically and morally untenable because he is taking refuge behind others who, by doing what he refuses to do himself, are protecting his wife and children for him.

Questions of whether the war is offensive or defensive, right or wrong, do not seem therefore to make any difference. All a man can do, to be consistent, is either to be willing to fight so long as his country is at war, or else be content to watch those dear to him suffer all those barbarities of which invading armies are capable.—! am, Sir, &c.,