DEBITS AND CREDITS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—Thank you for your article "Debits and Credits" on our English way of life today. We are naturally proud of our assets but it is well to study the debit side, heavily weighted and a pretty severe indictment.
"The flagrant conflict between the acknowledged failure
to provide two million men with the means of earning a liveli- hood and the extravagant living of a wealthy minority ; the vast sums spent annually on drink and gambling." Could there be a better argument for some form of universal service than this? Not for military reasons alone but to save the manhood of the nation.
The facts you mention, and others, are common knowledge, well known also to all abroad, friends and foes alike, and yet our leaders appear to be blind to their implications.
The international crisis is a test of our national character, and a moral challenge to change our way of life while there is time. In a recent broadcast address we heard the truth of the matter, "that England has tried to live without God for twenty years and the experiment has been a ghastly failure." It is high time we had a national campaign demanding from all alike some form of self-discipline and sacrifice, and to shake off our apathy and self-complacency. I feel sure the great mass of our people would respond if only a lead were given, for there are resources in the British character, as we were reminded recently, which have never yet failed when the call has come to- them.—Yours truly,
S. R. DRURY-LOWE, 106 Hamilton Terrace, N.W. 8. Vice Admiral (retired).
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