From ‘National Concentration‘, The Spectator, 3 April 1915:
A WORD or two of explanation seems necessary in regard to the attitude which we and others have taken up towards football displays, racing, and drinking during the war. Some people seem to think that those who hold our views want to find in the war an excuse for introducing Puritanism by a side-wind. Others seem to imagine that we think a war can only be waged successfully with sour faces and grim looks, and that there is no place for that gaiety and gallantry which have always marked, and, thank Heaven! still mark, the British fighting man. Let us say with all the emphasis at our command that nothing is further from our thoughts, when we ask that racing and drinking should be stopped during the war, than the introduction of Puritanism, or the creation of a mournful and joyless nation.
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