20 MARCH 1926, Page 16

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Thousands of men and

women who served in the War must have been feeling what Admiral Beamish so clearly says on this subject. May I add one word as oil on troubled waters ? The legitimate objection to a square peg in a round hole, or vice versa, becomes in War an absolutely valid reason for the removal of the peg, without any implication against its squareness. This inevitably happened again and again, sometimes even when the exact shape of the peg or the hole was inaccurately gauged. If Miss Douglas-Pennant had been a typical professional woman she would have recognized the simplicity of the situation and found a hole she could fill to everyone's satisfaction. If Mr. Winston Churchill had been rather precipitately given charge of the Officers' Families' Clothing Department, he would probably have been removed with equal pre- cipitancy, without our confidence in his qualities being shaken or his suitability for other posts being impugned. This is probably all the whole incident amounts to.—I am,