A SPECTATOR'S
NOTEBOOK
IF HAVE been making some enquiries into the working of A.B.C.A. I —the recently-created Army Bureau of Current Affairs—about which, in the first instance, I admit I had some misgivings. Talks on current affairs by lieutenants and second-lieutenants to their men seemed only likely to be a success when the talker happened to be better informed on things in general than the average subaltern is. But by all accounts the thing is going singularly well. The basis of the talks is a short pamphlet of sixteen pages issued fortnightly by A.B.C.A. headquarters at the War Office. The information in these brochures "is not to be com- municated directly or indirectly to the Press" (why, I don't know). If, therefore, I happen to have seen one or two of them it is merely as a human being. And without disclosing a word of the information therein embodied (not that it would add an iota to the world's knowledge if I did), I may perhaps be permitted to say that they are extraordinarily well done. Just the right information is given (on such subjects as America, Russia, oil, food-supplies), and the conversational suggestions as to how the talk should be delivered are altogether admirable. The thing is developing most constructively. In some units the officers who give the talks have formed a kind of brains-trust to pool their ideas and sharpen their wits before going into action in the lecture-room. In one locality an enquiry-bureau has been organised, with the help of civilian experts, to answer any questions soldiers may care to put by post as the result of what they have heard in the talks. A.B.C.A., given a year's run, with the bulk of the manhood of the country between 20 and 35 to work on, may become a factor of very real importance in national life.
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