THE BRIGADE OF GUARDS
SIR,—I desire to protest against a sentence in "A Spectator's Notebook" in your issue of April 5th. After describing certain questions said to have been put to candidates for commissions in the Guards, which were probably merely intended to discover whether the applicants took part in field sports and games, usually considered to produce physical fitness, courage and good comradeship, and which, conse- quently, are increasingly encouraged among all ranks in the Army, your contributor says, "War must be quite a nuisance to the Guards."
I had not the honour to serve in the Guards in the last war, but, like millions of other ex-Servicemen in all the armies on either side who fought in that war, I can testify to the magnificent discipline, marvellous heroism and superb fight- ing qualities of the Brigade of Guards. Again and again, in battle after battle, they, by their example, inspired and encouraged the will to victory.
And it is of this superb unit, at a time when we are engaged in what may prove to be the greatest struggle which we have ever undertaken, when our very existence is at stake, that " Janus " writes, "War must be quite a nuisance to the Guards."
Even if the Censor permitted it, no French newspaper would dare to print such a sentence about any of the formations of the French Army, because public opinion would regard it as a gross breach of good taste, calculated to infuriate every officer and man in the Army and all their relations, who comprise the entire population of France. No doubt I shall be told that we are quite different, and that the remark was intended to be humorous.
In other words, it is one of those nice clean, typically English jokes which cause dismay to our friends and joy to our enemies in every foreign country.
I think it was William III who observed that the attitude of the civilian population of this country towards the Army was incredible. It was, is, and I suppose always will be.—
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