WAR OFFICE, ABCA AND BEVERIDGE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sta,—How forcibly your issue of January 8th brings out the principles involved in the ban imposed on the ABCA pamphlet dealing with the Beveridge Report. On page 22 you discuss with sound reasoning the action taken by the Secretary of State for War. On page 27 your corre- spondent Mr. J. Mackay-Mure so truly observes that the soldier "retains his democratic" rights as a citizen, and, therefore, as an elector." On page 33 you remind your readers that Mr. R. G. Casey has said that the Beveridge Report has aroused the greatest interest amongst the troops in the Middle East.
I have served in the ranks of the Army since the outbreak of war, and I have attempted to study carefully and objectively the thoughts and opinions of my comrades. During this period I have noted with confi- dence the increasing interest that my colleagues are taking in current affairs. No one could be more fully aware than I that there are still thousands who have little idea of the problems to be faced or little inclination to solve them. But their numbers are lessening, and so long as that process continues we are moving in the right direction. Although the soldier's prime duty is the physical winning of the war, the struggle must be fought mentally as well as physically if there is to be any hope of our cause being crowned with total victory. Moreover, the funda- mental requisite of a better national existence after the war is the realisa- non by the individual of the responsible part that he, as a member of the community, must play. Every possible encouragement should therefore be given to soldiers to ponder over and discuss future as well as current problems.
What, then, will be the effect of the official ban on ABCA discussions of the Beveridge Report and other subsidiary controversial subjects by our soldiers at home? In what light will our comrades overseas view this step? Let us be frank and see the matter in its broader aspects. The effect can only be lamentably detrimental. The public must under- stand that the issue at stake is but the outward and visible sign of vital and far-reaching principles. In banning their right to discuss openly the Beveridge Report (for amongst themselves they continue to do so with undiminished vigour), the troops see added grounds for their uneasy feeling that they are still regarded as inferior to civilians. They suspect that whilst they are away from their peace-time work others are freely looking ahead to their post-war positions. Our men overseas (possibly the son or brother or husband of some who read this letter), now fight- ing so superbly on many fronts, battling and triumphing not only against the enemy but against incredible and distressing hardships ; our men at home, enduring with smiling countenance perhaps greater trials in the course of their training than the average civilian realises, and awaiting with eagerness the day when they in turn meet the enemy—are all these to toil and suffer and win merely to return after the war and find that there is no room for them in their homeland? That whilst on them the greatest burden has fallen, on them the least reward will be bestowed?
Are they to be betrayed in this manner.? It happened after the last war, and I beg your readers to consider whether at this rate it may not happen again after this war. On the young men and women of today (thousands of whom are now serving in the Army) will rightly fall the chief burden of striving in the years to come for a better world. I feel that that task will be undertaken by strong and capable hands, and I pray that this grave, but at the same time glorious, responsibility will not be matched from us. I am second to none in respecting the work and guidance of my elders. My generation will need all the help that they can give it, but the lawful inheritance that belongs to the youth of this country must not be denied it. Nothing could be more encouraging for the future than the increasing understanding by my military contem- poraries that the post-war world will be an era of trials and difficulties demanding persistent resolution and courage.—Yours faithfully,
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