29 NOVEMBER 1946, Page 17

DEFERRED DEMOBILISATION

Sin,—Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and if the deferment is due to injustice the resentment may harden into bitter and dangerous hatred. The deferment of the demobilisation of men who have already served for three or four years seems to show a callous indifference to injustice. In the first place, there must be enormous numbers of healthy young men who have never served at all. Their exemption may have been justifiable during the war, but they are quite certainly not indispensable now. The worst cases are the sons of wealthy parents who put them on the land, where they have enjoyed unlimited eggs, bacon, butter and every luxury in perfect safety all through the war, and are still doing so. Secondly, it was extremely unfair to exempt men just because they had reached the age of thirty ; after all, when the war started they were only twenty-four. Thirdly, it was bound to cause bitterness when men were released out of their turn in order to build houses and were then allowed to leave for some more profitable employment when they had done no more than six months' house-building.—I am, Sir, &c.,