19 DECEMBER 1941, Page 4

It is exhilarating to read of British troops smashing their

way through enemy defences in Libya and elsewhere, but not quite so gratifying to find them applying that process as extensively as they apparently do to their billets at home. On all sides I hear complaints, sometimes angry, sometimes almost tearful, of the complete disregard for property shown by all ranks once the property has been requisitioned for their use. Doors smashed, windows smashed, beds smashed, chairs and tables smashed—such is not an occasional but an all too general tale, and though officers as a whole no doubt show more consideration than the men, some of them, too, are capable of leaving a con- siderable trail of desolation behind them. This, it may be con- tended, is a small matter so long as we win the war. But it might conceivably be possible to beat Hitler without wrecking English homes.