14 JUNE 1902, Page 16

THE BLOOD TAX.

[TO TIM EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR."J

SIR,—I should like to answer a question put by your reviewer while noticing my novel, "The Blood Tax," in the Spectator of May 24th. Having quoted the incident of the German officer forced to leave the Army because of a box on the ear received in the dark, he asks, "Is this a caricature ? " In reply I wish to mention that the incident referred to happened, in all its details, within my own experience, with only this addition, that the unlucky man was a veteran, decorated in .war-time, a circumstance which was powerless to arrest his doom.—I am, Sir, &c., DOROTHEA GERARD.

Pryski, Kossow, Galicia, Austria.