5 APRIL 1940, Page 6

Two conversations. At 2.3o one day this week someone stopped

me. " A man I know," he said, " has just been putting in for a commission in the Guards. The first ques- tion he was asked was ' Do you hunt? ' " At 3.3o someone quite different, and quite unknown to the first someone, said to me " I've been enquiring about a commission in the Guards. The man who interviewed me asked me three ques- tions ' Do yeti hunt? Do you shoot? Do you play cricket? ' " A third applicant I know of was catechised in identically, or substantially, the same words. War must be quite a nuisance to the Guards.

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