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. 
