MR. HARVEY'S SPEECH.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your last issue you refer to an interjection from a member in the House of Commons during the course of T. Edmund Harvey's speech on the Military Service Bill. You suggest that the question, " What would you do if a German took your wife " is a reasonable and substantial one to put to a, Quaker. I accept it as a " substantial " question, and will give a substantial answer. I should treat a German in the same way as I should treat you under similar circumstances, and I promise that I should endeavour to mak3 it unpleasant for either German or editor. But, Sir, are you so bankrupt in argument as to suggest that this war emanated from a shortage
of wives in Germany, and that every soldier in the German Army (whose prowess Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Page Croft, T.F., has extolled to illustrate the benefits of conscription) is out to carry off a bride to the Fatherland ? If my memory serves me right, that certainly was the object of a classic battle when the Sabine women were carried off by Romulus ! May I remind you that we have entrusted Englishwomen on many occasions to the care of German husbands—Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, the mother of the present Kaiser, are instances in point. So I would suggest that you think again, and see if you can find a less vulgar and stale conundrum for the Quaker to answer. Or has your " thinking-cap" been conscripted by the Censor ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
MARRIED QUAKER.
P.S.—By the way, was the hero of Trafalgar above suspicion in the matter of running off with another man's wife ?
[The interjection was not made by us but by a Member of Parliament, though we endorsed it as relevant. We did not understand it to suggest that the German in question would have matrimonial intentions. If " Married Quaker " will look at the Report of Lord Bryce's Committee on the Belgian atrocities, or the supplement to the Field published to-day, he will understand what taking a man's wife means in this context. —ED. Spectator.]
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