Spectator's Note book
psi sure that Mr. Profumo's decision to put the 'Rhine Army under curfew isn't the best way to restore discipline and raise morale. It will con- centrate incidents around midnight, and its effect upon morale (none too high as it is) will be con- siderable. If the Secretary of State is to punish the many for the sins of the few, this will be bitterly resented, and the curfew may well pro- voke rather than prevent further alarms. There is also the unpleasant implication that our troops need to be protected not only from themselves but from the local Germans as well. But relations between the Army and the German civilian population are neither good nor bad, merely normal. The Germans have to live with great numbers of foreign troops, who are accepted, disregarded and as far as possible ignored. It would be the same in any English garrison town. For the soldier with enough sense to take advantage of them, the Army provides plenty of off-duty activities. The trouble comes with those who are too dim to make use of them. At the root of the problem is the young, unmarried, and resourceless private soldier. With plenty of drink (spirits 3d. a shot) and next to no girls, he will probably end the evening drunk and disgruntled in some squalid caf6.
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