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Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 76, 27 September 1916, Page 7

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"There they fight and die.. Here ire*.' eat, drink, and are merry, for to-mor-row we do not die. That,, for some of us, is the difference between the men over there and the - people over here. We need to be touched by the fire of battle so that each of us ■in our safe, _ecure home may do our duty," says theLondon Star.

" There is a letter in Tho Times -which will help us all to live and work. It was written by a young officer to his parents on 30th June, on the eve of the Battle of the -Somme. The writer was killed on the following day. This is his letter:—

"'•I am writing this '.letter to youjust before going into action to-morrow---morning about "dawn. "'I am about to take pant in the biggest battle that ha. yet been fought in. France, and one which ought to helpto end the war veiy quickly. "'I--never, felt' more confident or cheerful in my lif. before, and would not miss the attack for. anything' on-> earth. ..,'. '_.-,7' " - ,-"'The men are in splendid form, and every officer and man is more' happy and cheerful than I have ever seen them. ,

"'I have just, been playing a raff game of football, in which the umpire had a revblver and. a whistle. "' My idea in writing this letter is, in case I am one of the "costs," and get killed. I do not expect to be, but such things have happened, and are always possible.

"'lt is impossible to fear d«n±h out' here when one is.no longer an indivadual, but a member of a regiment arid of an army.- . To be lulled means nothing to me, and it is only you who*, suffer for it; you really pay tho cost. ..."'I have been/looking at .It-he stars, and thinking what an immense- distances i they are away., What an insignificant thing the loss of, say, forty years of life^ is compared with them! lit. seems, scarcely worth talking about. ".'jWell, good-bye, you darlings. Try. ' not to .worry about it ( and remember that-we shall meet again really quite soon. "'This letter is going to be posted. if . . . Lots of-love. From your loving* son.' •".... The Star comments-: "It is a. desecration even-to. try to expound and explain the great soul, of the hero who wrote that marvellous letter. But we know that it mirrors the soul of the new armies." If the writer had lived .the letter would never have been posted or read or pubished. Its tenderness, itsexaltation, its selfless nobility, its vision of sacrifice, its unimaginable, manhood would never have, been revealed. , . "Let us .take it as a. precious gift and let it inspire us. The man who wrote it fell leading his company to the assault. Many men of the same stamp fell like him that day. Many men of tho ■same stamp are falling like him every day. Are we at home living as nobly as they died ? Have we won through service and sacrifice the clear happiness and cheerfulness to which they attained? As we listen to the bickerings of little politicians and the squabblings of petty factionists, we wonder whether the air :of Blighty is as healthy as the air. of the Somme. That there should be mean little men is inevitable,-but that the mean little men . should . dare to say their mean little words is not their fault, . but ours.

"Our dead are calling "to us to be worthy of them, and pur, utmost and uttermost reply- is but a poor small thing,after all." ....