Читать книгу The Times Great War Letters: Correspondence during the First World War - James Owen - Страница 42

THE CASE FOR AMUSEMENTS

13 March 1915

SIR,—MAY I IN THE midst of profound grief be allowed to express a humble opinion as to what I conceive to be one’s duty in the colossal task that we have before us? The outcry of certain people against all forms of entertainment and recreation during this crisis seems to me a false cry. To “entertain” means to engage the attention and to occupy it agreeably, and to “recreate” means to refresh. Many of us earn our livelihood in ways that appear not vital to national existence. But what is vital? At the present moment all that is vital to our existence as a nation is the wherewithal to carry on the war to a successful issue. It is our duty to provide this first and foremost. Equally with this it is surely our duty to provide those who are dependent on us with the necessities of life. There are hundreds of thousands of men and women unfit and unqualified to help their country in a direct way at the present moment, but for whom paid employment is as individually vital as our national existence. Is it not better for such as cannot fight for their country to earn a living even in racing stables, in theatres, and music-halls, or as novelists, artists, musicians—in fact in a hundred other ways—rather than starve or live upon the charity of the already overburdened ratepayer? Looking at it from an economic point of view the question presents an aspect that is vital, not only to those who are directly concerned, but to the millions who are only indirectly affected. The manufacture and consumption of the superfluities of life outweigh the necessities to an extent impossible to calculate. To stop racing, to close theatres and music-halls, to put an end for the time to literature, art, music and—if we are to be logical—to cease the consumption of wines, the manufacture of spirits, beer, tobacco, jewelry, or even the cultivation of flowers, must inevitably result in a reduced circulation of money and a corresponding increase of taxation, which would prove the ultimate ruin of those few industries vital to the existence of a great nation.

Yours faithfully,

GERALD DU MAURIER

Du Maurier’s brother and his nephew, one of the children who inspired the writing of Peter Pan, had recently been killed.