THE ARTIST IN WAR SIR,—Study of the Schedule of Reserved
Occupations yields the conclusion that in a nation organised on a war footing the place for the artist is deemed to be the fighting forces. By artist one means, of course, the writer, the painter, the com- poser or performer of music, the sculptor, the actor, and so on.
It may well be that during a period of emergency such persons as these are of less immediate use than land-workers or jig and tool makers, but, taking only a slightly longer view, is it really wise in a conflict admittedly being fought for civilisation, culture and all that sort of thing, to take so small heed of what happens to those who are generally recognised as the torchbearers of these vital interests?
The artist, because he is the only truly unique being, is also the only truly irreplaceable being. Recalling such men as Gaudier-Brerska, Brooke, Ledwidge, Edward Thomas, Cecil Chesterton, all killed by the last War, is to set one wondering a little whether civilisation's loss in their deaths was really compensated for by the military services that they performed.
The position under the present dispensation which protects the navvy (good luck to him!) is that Samuel Taylor Cole- ridge, were he still alive, would be pitched neck and crop into the Army on the strength of his " previous military experi- ence." You have, in other words, the anomalous position of a war waged to safeguard freedom of thought in which nothing whatever is being done to preserve the few that are capable of this very unusual activity.—Yours faithfully, SAMUEL HEALD. z Wellington House, Botley, Hampshire.
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