Читать книгу The Times Great War Letters: Correspondence during the First World War - James Owen - Страница 24

ST. ANDREW’S DAY AT ETON

24 November 1914

SIR,—IT HAS BEEN decided to transfer the usual fixtures on St. Andrew’s Day at Eton to Saturday, November 28. This has been done for the benefit of the very large number of Old Etonians serving in the forces, for whom Saturday is a much more convenient day for getting leave.

The Wall match will begin at the usual time; and there will be an Old Etonian match in the afternoon.

Yours faithfully,

ANTHONY BEVIR, Captain of the School

IN CASE OF A RAID

3 December 1914

SIR,—THERE IS CONSIDERABLE talk in East Anglia and Essex of the martial spirit of the civilian inhabitants and of the deeds they mean to perform against invading Germans if they get the chance. This martial spirit is creditable, but it cannot be too clearly stated that at the present time a civilian’s martial spirit can only be properly shown in one way.

That way is to enlist in the Regular Forces.

The Germans have not fought according to the rules of civilized warfare as laid down at The Hague. But in this regrettable fact we can find no excuse for imitating them. It is against the rules of civilized warfare for civilians to attempt to kill soldiers. Single snipers would expose their villages to reprisals whose nature we know; and, further, no bands of snipers formed suddenly in an emergency would have the slightest chance of being recognized by the enemy as combatants.

Moreover, the majority of potential snipers could only be armed with a shot-gun, a weapon hopelessly outranged by, and practically useless against, the military rifle.

But there is a stronger reason against civilian fighting. As the military representative on the Emergency Committee which has charge of a large district as dangerously situated as any, I have received a personal positive instruction from the General Officer commanding the South Midland Division that the military authorities absolutely discountenance, and strongly object to, any form of civilian fighting. The arrangements to repel a raid are in their hands; the responsibility is theirs; and any man who acts contrary to their wishes must thereby confuse their plans, impede their operations, and endanger their success.

Any civilian who wants to help against a raid should go to the chairman of his parish council, and through him offer his services to the Emergency Committee of his district. The details of the very exhaustive and elaborate arrangements are now being completed, and there is, or will be, should the moment come, sufficient work to employ all male civilians with wit enough to understand the high value of hearty and obedient cooperation. It would perhaps be impolitic to publish particulars, but the chairman of every parish council has full information and is in a position to allocate duties.

Any civilian, whatever his motive, who tries to repel a raid on his own initiative and by his own devices will be guilty of an act essentially unpatriotic.

ARNOLD BENNETT, Military Representative on the Emergency

Committee of the Tendring Division (Essex)