111R. ERSKINE CHILDERS AND MILITARY RAIDS IN IRELAND.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 have just seen some paragraphs in your issue of May 1st saying that you "have read in the Daily News articles by Mr. Erskine Childers in which he complains of the bad manners of the probably inexperienced officers who raided his house. lie was particularly annoyed at the conduct of one young gentleman who threw cigarette-ash upon the drawing-room floor." Pray allow me to explain that no reference to any such incident has been made in a series of seven articles recently contributed by me to the Daily News, criticizing, from the point of view of an ex-Army officer and an Irish citizen, the conduct of soldiers and police in Ireland and the methods and policy of Castle government, under the heading "What it Means to Women," "Looting," " Sabotage and Terror," "The Real Objective," " Espionage," &c.
The reference in your paragraphs appears to be to a letter tit complaint addressed by me to the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland a fortnight before this series of articles began. The correspondence appeared in many newspapers, English and I am sorry that the writer of your paragraphs should have missed the point of the complaint and the general criti- cisms founded on it—for his reference to the incident does wholly miss the point—but I have not the slightest wish to reopen discussion of a single personal experience. ronly wish to dispel the impression that in writing in the Daily News about the very grave position in Ireland I have done anything SO absurd as to found my indictment on trivial personal grievances.—I am, Sir, &c., ERSKINE CHILDERS (late MEI):OF R.A.F.).
20 Wellington Road, Dublin.
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