REFUSAL OF MILITARY SERVICE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In these days of crisis when the utter futility and crime of warfare is so vividly felt,. may I bring to the attention of your readers the fate of some hundred or, more young men who are passively resisting the encroachment of militarism on civilian life ? I refer to the War Resisters imprisoned in about a dozen countries of Europe for refusal to do. their military service. They are giving their lives for this .cause of peace often with no hope of ever regaining their liberty. There is very much which can be done to strengthen and support them. For instance after seven years' effort, the War. Resisters' International has been successful in obtaining the release of a Frenchman who had been exiled for this reason for 19 years in French Guiana. A quotation from a letter written just after his release will perhaps indicate better than anything the sprit in which these men are serving the world :
"After having been cut off from the world of living mon during 19 years of exile .for. having resisted war.; after having suffered numberless tortures more frightful than death ; I have refused to allow hate to enter my heart, having retained in the midst of all these perils, th'e Ideal of Peace and love of one's fellow-men."
Further information will gladly be given and financial help from your readers will be very gratefully welcomed and iliOuld be sent to the writer at the office of the Movement Fin-, at 11 Abbey Road, Enfield; Middlesex.—Yours truly, ' A. RUTH A. RUTH
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