26 FEBRUARY 1937, Page 21

" GRINGOES " [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sik,—Mr.

P. A. La Rue's ciplariatiOn (in your issue of the 12th inst.) Of this term agrees with what 1 was told when a member of the British Military "MitsiOn to the U.S.A. in 1917-18, but I was given a different explanation for the term " greaser." It was that, during the war of 1840, the American artillerymen did not like the job of cleaning and greasing their guns, and paid the Mexican prisoners to do it for them.

Hence the term " greaser " was applied to all Mexicans.—