3 JULY 1926, Page 20

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm.--My Spectator follows me

like my shadow. I have just read Mr. G. F. Bridge's comment in your issue of June 19th on Mr. St. Loe Strachey's story, and I must say from my experience the story is far nearer the truth than the comment !

I lived in Germany for two years-1873-5, and have many times watched the German soldiers being drilled, and seen the officers knocking about the recruits in exactly the way Mr. Strachey describes.

Whether they were " Freiwilliger "—i.e., men who, as Mr. Bridges tells us, had only to serve one year, or the ordinary recruit, who served his three years, I cannot at this distance of time say, but the treatment they received was certainly Inutal.—I am, Sir, &c., Wm. TOWER TOWNSBEND. Hotel des Eh-angers, Mont Dore, Puy de Dome, France.