THE VOICE OF YOUTH
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Sixth Form of Bembridge School appear to have a sound appreciation of the grim truth that old men make wars and send young men to fight them. (One might also add that if the aforesaid old men knew that they would have to fight in the wars they made there would be no wars, which is most odd, seeing that the nation's honour and safety they talk so much about before each war would be just as much in peril and in need, one would suppose, of defence !)
I should, however, like to ask, not in any critical spirit, but merely for information, whether the Sixth Form, in rejecting the idea of military sanctions, are prepared to face the risks (often exaggerated), the difficulties and the sacrifices of the only tolerable alternative to sanctions, which is disarmament, either total, or virtually so ? The third and quite intolerable alternative is " Daily Mailism," or, as the Fascists put it, "Minding Britain's business," which, being interpreted, means rearming for a war which will not be undertaken unless our selfish interests are threatened and in which we intend to constitute ourselves judges in our own cause. The enforcement of sanctions is as much above " Daily Mailism " as the Christian method of disarmament is above sanctions ; for if we drop back to " Daily Mailism " then every person who died and suffered in the Great War has assuredly died and suffered in vain.—Yours very truly,
62 St. James' Court, S.W. TAVISTOCK.
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