THE RECRUITING PROBLEM
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—" Reference recruiting problem " (as all the best orderly-room clerks put it), there is one point that appears to have escaped the attention of Mr. Duff Cooper. This is the importance of avoiding de-popularising the Army. As an example of how not to do it, the following is instructive.
On Saturday afternoon I saw in Trafalgar Square a lad of apparently seventeen, dressed in civilian clothes, crying bitterly and handcuffed to a couple of stalwart military policemen. Five minutes later, as I was held up at a crowded crossing in the Strand, I saw another youth in civilian dress, also under military escort. It is true that he was handcuffed to only one military policeman, but a second, -ready for emergencies, was behind him.
Presumably these desperadoes were deserters, and had disliked the Army so much that they had run away from it. Still, it is improbable that they will like it any the better for being dragged back to it in this fashion. Judging fro:n the comments of the onlookers, this view will be generally shared.
" If that's the way they treat 'em in the Army," was one opinion that I heard, you don't catch me enlisting."
Not altogether an unnatural decision.—Yours faithfully, HORACE WYNDHAM.
Union Club, Carlton House Terrace, S.117. 1.
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