A GARDEN DIARY 149 



removed ? and if so, since when ? This is the 

 point that one would like extremely to have 

 authoritatively cleared up, seeing that the number 

 of civilians, capable at a pinch of defending their 

 own homes, possibly even their own fields and 

 parishes, seem likely as the years go on to in- 

 crease. Organised, or unorganised, the straight- 

 shooting civilian has arrived, and he proposes to 

 stay. He is still, however, an entirely new factor 

 in the body politic, and, like other new-comers, 

 he requires therefore to be neatly adjusted to the 

 rest. That under no circumstances he could be 

 of any use, few, I take it, would be bold enough 

 to assert. These are hardly days when any 

 possibly useful national asset can be left with 

 safety upon the shelf. Let our sturdy civilian 

 be able, in case of capture, to claim the same 

 amount of amenity that is accorded in all decent 

 warfare to the captured soldier, in that case 

 I should say speaking, of course, merely as a 

 fool that the more of him we had the better 

 and the more comfortable for all of us. 



