MILITIA SERVICE AND EDUCATION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
Sta,—The interest of your correspondence columns is, to my mind, that they contain such a variety of views from a variety of writers. Mr. R. Williams should therefore forgive the fact that the views of the foolish—like the writer, for instance— appears therein.
Now that the War Office has given those embarking on a University career the option of doing their military training before or after that career, all should be. satisfied.
I consider it was a pity headmasters raised such a public pother on the subject, as it gave the impression they were claiming special privileges for one class—namely, the student class.
The majority of boys embark on their careers soon after leaving their public or Council schools. I was one of four brothers who all did so on leaving their public school. Three of us had taken part in campaigns before the age of twenty, while the fourth had been round the world twice before that age. We had to get out and get on, and not bother about our psychology.
There are in rural districts of this country many lads of twenty who have not slept a night away from their homes. To such military training will be a far stranger experience than to a public school' boy of eighteen or nineteen; but no one has written letters to the Press about their psychology. Every summer thousands of lads of T.A. units, and of about eighteen to nineteen, go into camp with men older than themselves, but gain nothing but good therefrom. Why should the better educated? The Army attempts to live up to a high standard of conduct and efficiency, it attempts to train not merely good soldiers, but good citizens, and with considerable success.
Naturally some soldiers resent the idea that there are great psychological dangers in that life. I believe such are no greater than those a young man encounters on first entering a university. Militiamen of twenty to twenty-one might reply to such headmasters as advise service after graduation, that they cannot hope to compete for selection as leaders against those of twenty-two with all the wisdom gained at their seats of learning behind them; while the sophistication of members of the O.U.D.S. would be a real danger to their psychology! But there is " give and take " in this world.
Some undergraduates I know work hard during the Long Vacation, but numbers do not, and have a far easier time than those forced to earn their living at an early age.
I know a couple who have eleven sons all serving in the Navy and doing well. The parents did not fear the psycho- logical dangers their sons would encounter, and they were Aldermoor, Beaulieu, Hams.
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