From The Times: August 4, 1921
To the Editor of The Times. Sir, May I, as a young man (and, incidentally, an Old Wykehamist), make some reply to the accusations of “Old Etonian”. It would be strange indeed if “a curious change” was not to be observed in the young of today. Without making the too common claim that we “won the war”, we may at least remind him that for three or four years we were subject to such a discipline as he and his like have never known, and never will know. We spent a large proportion of that time absorbing the notions of “middle-aged men” concerning dress and “smartness” and sartorial respect. We were told that these were more than matters of form, they were essential to efficiency. But we saw that many an uncouth miners’ battalion was as valiant and efficient in the field as the Guards; we saw that those senior officers who were most busy about the ritual details of “smartness” were often the most stupid, pig-headed, and inhuman; we saw “experience” fussing about salutes and forgetting about the men’s food; and it is not surprising if we have learned to set our own value on matters of form. Even so, no young man I have met claims to do “exactly as he pleases” in this respect, though we may have found new standards. It is possible, for example, that the young men in “blue serge suits, &c,” regarded their costume as more becoming than the funereal top-hattery of the rest of Lord’s. But, surely, we may play what games we like. No doubt there is effeminate lawn tennis, as there is effeminate cricket, but let “Old Etonian” go to Wimbledon and dare to describe what he sees as “pat-ball.” I should not dream of calling him a “snob”. But I would ask him to go a little deeper. If he had asked at the universities he would have been told by any of the authorities that the average post-war undergraduate displayed an industry and keenness unlike anything that was known before the war. It is conceivable that the young men who go to luncheons in flannel collars do so because they have work to do before and after the meal. Snobbery is not his complaint, but lack of imagination. As for our offspring, I beg that he will leave them alone. He is right in supposing that they will not be brought up as we were brought up.
I am, Sir, Yours. &c. A P HERBERT