PRISONERS AT COMMUNION
Sta,—May I make a mild protest at the easy assumption made in the Rev. L. B. Towner's letter in last week's Spectator. He quotes from a letter "from Geneva "—no name given—which appeared in the Sobornost nearly two years ago that in two German camps for Russian prisoners large numbers attended a communion service when invited and received communion. On this vague statement he says "let it not be thought (Russian) fighting men have no desire for religion." If half of what we hear of German treatment of Russian prisoners is true, they may well go to communion services or anything else offered to please their prison authorities or to get the slightest change from the deadly monotony or worse of their conditions. Under such circumstances I confess I should myself gladly go to a communion service or a lecture in the Chinese language in the hope that such small obedience- to official requests would earn me some crumb of extra consideration in the future. While the Church's own spokesmen say that not more than to per cent, of our own people attend places of worship, I suppose it is natural that the vicar should, seize upon this anonymous bit of " evidence " as a ray of hope in an unbelieving world. It is a poor heart that never rejoices.—Yours,
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