THE CALL TO ARMS. [To THE EDITOR OP THR "SPECTAT030]
have just sent a copy of the following letter to be read to the employees of a small estate in Gloucestershire, where, amongst twenty men, there are possibly of suitable age and physique five or six that have not yet enlisted :- " I will undertake, if you join the colours and if I am alive at the end of the war, to take you back at a shilling a week more
than you are earning now, or find you an equally good situation. It is the duty of every able-bodied man of suitable age to respond to the call of his country. No considerations must stand in the way. Duty and honour require of you to join the Army and fight for your country. Aro you going to?"
To this I have added a private note to the bailiff saying that the men must be given reasonable time to decide. It is essential to the self-respect of those who are willing to go that they should not feel that they are driven to a choice of two evils—dismissal or enlisting. Those who refuse my offer, after time for due consideration, will be dis- missed—being a woman I have no use for cowards and shirkers.
I write this letter thinking it may appeal to other employers.
In the present difficulty of getting recruits we have to face facts as they are. The agricultural labourer, the unedu- cated countryman, is out of touch with things political and vital; we can therefore only appeal to him in a workaday practical fashion. The vital and significant thing for him is how he is to eat and live from day to day. We cannot blame him for this attitude—we have no time now to alter it; we must be up and doing. " The time is at hand, be careful for nothing," must be the watchword for those of us who still have
something.—I am, Sir, &c., BEATRICE CUNARD.
Down Ampney House, Cric1•lade.
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