Sm,—As perhaps the only female of the so-called " educated
classes " who has reached the age of twenty without having been a Communist, or having thought of being a Communist, or even having said : " Well, but look here, don't you think the Communists are really rather marvellous? " perhaps I could venture to enter the correspondence about the U.L.F.'s war vote with an observation that will probably put me in peril of my life : that is, is the opinion of Oxford students to be taken so very seriously?
After all, they are very young, and have as a rule had little experience of life—and Communism, with its incentives to violent speech, personal carelessness and unconventionality of manner, is ideally suited to appeal to the young. My brother, who caught it himself while at Oxford (his own phrase) remarked : " It's fashionable to be Communist at the moment. It'll be something else soon."
In most of my Communist friends I have observed two impulses. The first is to improve the world, immediately. The second is to impress their relations and friends. These two impulses are very common in young people—Communism provides the illusion of immediate world-improvement, plus the agreeable feeling of having made one's family sit .up and take notice of one for the first time—and nothing but Communism, at the moment, can cause these two sensations to combine in such an agreeable manner.—I am, Sir, yours
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