24 APRIL 1915, Page 14

NATIONAL CONCENTRATION.

iTo eel Soros or TIRO "araor•ros."]

Sin,—In a letter which appeared in your issue of the 17th inet. the Bishop of London forcibly supported your plea for national concentration, and it is impossible to take up a daily or weekly paper without reading paragraph. which emphasize this vital necessity. Day after day those who are connected directly or indirectly with the manufacture of munitions are being urged to pat forth their utmost efforts so that officers and men at the front may not be able to complain that they are not being adequately supported by those upon whom they depend for supplies. The evidence appears to show that vast numbers of the workers are behaving magnificently, but that some comparatively small bodies of men are slackers, easily diverted from work by the attractions of sport and drink, and that these men very unfortunately have the means of delaying and diminishing the output of their ener- getic comrades. Words have little or no effect upon them—they need more than words, they need the example of deeds. They see one large section of the community devoting itself to the interests and pleasures of horse- Teeing, just as if our country were in its normal state. It seems to me, Sir, that if the devotees of the turf could awake to the realities of the situation they would not wish to be pointed at (as with a few notable and honourable exceptions they are) as men who put their pleasures before their patriotism. Rather would they wish to devote their energies to the common cause, and, if they did so, their influence and their example would have a striking moral effect, for example is, as Edmund Burke said, "the only argument of effect in civil life." Lord Roberts in his lifetime gave us many warnings, and some of us regret that we did not pay more heed to them; but it is never too late to mend, and we can even now profit by one of his last admonitions "This is no time for games." Cromwell chose for his army such men as wade conreicnce of what they did, and he was able to aasert " They were never beaten." What we need now is an entire nation making conscience of what it does, and when that is the case, then, and only then, may we be reasonably sure of