THE ARTIST IN WAR
SIR,—I very much welcomed Mr. Samuel Heald's letter, " The Artist in War," in your issue of September 22nd, though I fear greatly that the complaint of the creative artist is a voice in the wilderness of officialdom.
Something must be done to hold back our torchbearers of culture. If we are fighting for a new order in which anarchy and gangsterdom shall be eliminated from the world, it is right and just that we should not sacrifice the very individuals who are responsible for the continuance of this culture of ours in times of peace. That this process of quiet persecution of the artist has already begun is too evident. As Mr. Heald pointed out, no mention is made of the poet, the painter, the musician on the Schedule of Reserved Occupations. He is either beneath notice as not fitting into any category laid down by the Ministry of Labour (or whoever was responsible for drawing up the List), or he is regarded as a being set apart, isolated from the navvy, the toolsetter, the accountant, because he has gifts which are not sympathetically understood or appreciated by cold officialdom. An England that can boast of a long and illustrious list of famous men should never make the serious mistake of forgetting its heritage or im- perilling its future by crushing its artist beneath the inexorable wheels of the army machine. We can better spare the politician whose errors of judgement are responsible for this present state of lawlessness and bloodshed, or the finander, whose cold calculations make profit out of war. No, the writer, the musician has work to do at home ; serious,
courageous work. His fitness for any other task is question- able, the value of his military service dubious. He, too, is a " key man " in being quite irreplaceable. The country can ill afford to waste the humblest of such men because, as in 1914, these young men of ours are the seers and rulers of the intellectual world of the future.
Officialdom must have something to say about this, the PLACE of the artist in war. There might even be room for him in the official-laden Ministry of Information!—Yours
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