31 JULY 1909, Page 14

COMPULSORY SERVICE.

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPELT ATOR...]

SIR,—Mr. Graham Brown (Spectator, July 17th) speaks of " foolish and cowardly panic." But well-grounded fear is neither, and this is exactly what his own words show the present state of feeling to be. If I may speak for one woman —and the non-combatant are the larger portion of the com- munity—it is the sense of exasperated helplessness in face of the general loss of confidence in those who are responsible for the safety of the nation that gives form and reality to menace from without. Our unpreparedness, at any rate, is genuine, whether the supposed danger be so or not.—I am, Sir, &c., C.

[Our unpreparedness is the danger. It is an incentive to others to make adequate preparations to attack us. The paradox of the situation is that if our preparations were to become adequate, the risk of their ever being used would disappear.—ED. Spectator.]