Oxe of the more unpleasant aspects of war which has not been noted as yet by those who write so feelingly about its horrors is ihe sex angle as an aid to recruiting.
it is an old thing about the English that, although they are regarded as almost sexless by foreigners and take violent exercise in a gallant attempt to ignore its existence, they somehow contrive to bring sex into everything.
(All this can be explained by Freud and the other little man whose name escapes me at the moment)
While most other democracies, with the exception of America, depend on conscription ior the defence of their national freedom, the British depend on the lure of sex. When the country is in danger young men who are fit and still out of uniform are warned that the doubtful favours of British womanhood will be withheld unless they join up.
As in 1914 the same cautionary paragraphs are creeping into the papers. I take this one from a gossip column Fellows are wearing with due pride the riy Territorial badges in their lapels, and I y that young women, too, showing greater interest in young men who have enlisted.
Well, fellows, whether you enlist or not is a matter for your own conscience.
I can only warn fellows who.have no higher motive for giving national service than. attracting the female eye that without charm they stand no chance with girls whether in uniform or not Those who read their advertisements - care~ fully have the fearful example of the antisocial sailor who couldn't find a wife in any If a sailor, bronzed by the sun and the wind and full of breezy jokes, still repels the women of the world, what chance has a pale, weedy anti-social fellow like you in your old navy blue suit and your tiny Territorial badge wbbins in the "Sunday Express."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.