SPY-MANIACS SIR, —Mr. Harold Nicolson's vigorous article in your issue of
October 6th is a timely and salutary warning against an
attitude which in times like the present may only too easily develop into an obsessiOn. Even in peace-time the suspicions of unqualified busybodies can be harmful to the community as well as injurious to the objects of suspicion. I recently came across a poignant example of this : a new rector was appointed to the living of a west country village. With him came his wife—and her foreign accent. The villagers made up their minds that their village was no place for monsters of such fearful potentialities. Various efforts, at which the church- wardens connived, were made to boycott their victims and generally to make life for them uncomfortable in the village. The fact that the rector proved an excellent preacher, and that his wife, by visiting homes and holding meetings for the womenfolk of the village, did all that was humanly possible to support her husband, made not the slightest difference ; there was no getting away from the foreign accent. After about nine months of this came (rather late in the day by all accounts!) the inevitable and wretched whisper: "That woman might be a spy." No suggestion was made as to what information the good lady could procure in a remote agri- cultural village—that was unimportant ; it was the foreign accent that mattered. Soon afterwards the rector resigned his living in despair. Whether he ever heard any of the " spy " murmurings I do not know. He left when the war broke out. His late parishioners now rejoice to learn that their victim's wife is of German extraction, and doubtless pat themselves on the back for a piece of intelligent intelligence work. The fact that the good lady has lived in this country for years does not worry them—did she not speak with a foreign accent?—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
Court Lodge, Fawkham, Kent. C. JAMES MARTIN.
Previous page
