WAR SAVINGS AND ALCOHOL
(To rue EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sus,—The letter from Mr. W. M. Meredith in your issue of December 16th is not calculated to help either the national cause or the prohibition movement. He has the hardihood to admit that his patriotism is conditional, and he refuses to make any voluntary sacrifice for his country unless certain things, for which apparently he has no taste himself, are prohibited for others. What is worse, he invites your readers in " hundreds of thousands " to try to force their own views on the community by following his example. Might I suggest that this form of conditional patriotism is capable of indefinite extension? The vegetarians might refuse to economize until such time as the eating of meat is prohibited; the moderate drinkers might even refuse to economize until such time as the prohibition agitation is suppressed; the Socialists might refuse to help the national cause until such time as the means of production, distribution, and exchange have been socialized; the women might refuse to help their country unless they are given a vote, and so on. I wonder what Mr. Meredith would hare thought if the gallant lads who have given their lives for their country had made their service conditional on the acceptance by the community of their views on polities or morality. Probably more than half the men whe volunteered to make fhe greatest sacrifice that man can snake were disgusted with the Government of the day, but they did not stop to make conditions when the call came to national service. You, Sir, have condemned in no uncertain terms those Irishmen who have sought to make their patriotism conditional on the immediate concession of Home Rule, but there have been many Irishmen, and prominent Nationalists among them, who made no such conditions, and who have cheerfully given their lives for the preservation of the Empire, and the common cause of all civilized peoples. In face of all this heroio sacrifice it seems to me to be unworthy of any true Britisher to quibble about the terms upon which he would be prepared to render the paltry service of personal economy.—I am, Sir, fie., ED/RUND G. Poeta.
Threlkeld, Hawthorn Road, Sutton, Surrey.
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