THE HOME GUARD

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23263, 25 February 1941, Page 12

THE HOME GUARD

TO THE EDITOR 0» CBB PRESS Sir, —It is not easy to consider dispassionately any activity connected with the war. and one is hesitant to "write critically about such things. ./However, recent extreme utterances

by Home Guard enthusiasts, and more particularly the suggestion that men should be conscripted for it, constrain me to protest that the vast majority of eligible men who have *not joined the guard are by no means the blind, selfish, ease-loving folk that the aforesaid enthusiasts declare them to be. On the other hand, most of such men have failed to join the guard simply because they lack conviction as to the necessity for it, and in many cases regard it not only as futile, but, by reason of the wasted energy involved, and the inevitable expense when the men are equipped and put into uniform, as being positively an unwarranted strain on national resources.

Only one possibility could justify the training of elderly men in this way, and that is the possibility of invasion. Now, it is obvious that Invasion cannot be undertaken by Germany »or Italy. If we grant that it is possible, oerhaps probable, that Japan will enter the war, have we anj£.information that would justify- us in assuming that she could, with the slightest degree of safety transport a large force over thousands of miles of ocean to these islands? Also, is there the slightest possibility that the United States fleet would remain inactive while such a movement was in progress? The necessity for brevity compels me to say merely that if both these questions can be answered in the affirmative, let the Government say so. Then, and not till then, will there be a flood of recruits to the guard.— Yours, etc., _ OLD SOLDIER. February 22, 1941.