THE CANKER IN OUR MIDST
SIR.—Though long deterred, by considerations of delicacy, from referring publicly to a subject which must be naturally repugnant to all decent people, 1 feel that the time has come to draw attention to a growing social menace. We live in a tolerant age, yet the majority of right-minded persons will, I am sure, agree with me when I assert that tolerance—in a matter where the profoundest instincts of mankind are outraged, and the purity of youth endangered— can be carried too far.
I am referring, of course, to the disgusting practice of alliophagy, or the eating of garlic and onions.
I am well aware,. sir, that among many so-called 'intellectuals'—permeated as they are by the pernic- ious theories of modern psychology—this practice is defended on the grounds that, since it occurs with relative frequency among persons of both sexes, it cannot be stigmatised as 'unnatural.' A further argu- ment, often advanced by these gentry, is that onion- eating was regarded as a 'normal' indulgence among the ancient Greeks and Romans. I do not question this fact (though for me it has always seemed to cast a slur upon the glories of antiquity);' I merely point out that we, sir, are not Greeks or Romans, but Britons—and, if I may speak for myself, proud of it.
Again, it is argued that this. revolting vice should he a matter for the individual conscience rather than the subject of legislation, at any rate among persons above the age of twenty-one; yet is there not, sir, a grave danger that our innocent kiddies, following the example of adults who make no secret of their abominable proclivities, may become victims of the same unnatural addiction?
It seems to me, sir, that all such arguments are not only specious but suspiciously partisan. 'Logical' they may be, but we, as a nation, have always been rightly mistrustful of mere logic; and speaking as a normal and—if I may so—a clean-living man, my whole being revolts against a practice which 1 feel, instinctively, to be contrary to the laws of God and Nature.—Yours faithfully,
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