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In England NowA Running Commentary by Peripatetic CorrespondentsNAPLES has already provided the one dramatic epi-

demic of the war, aiTA my bet is that it will be responsiblefor the next. Two years after liberation Naples is stillin a shocking state, materially, morally, and hygienically.Dust, dirt, smells, flies, lice, mosquitoes, and sandfliesare everywhere. The water-supply is intermittent, andwhat negative pressure and back-syphonage does in theinterval appears to be nobody’s business. Italy aboundsat least in labour and stone, but there are still pot-holesin the roads and pavements, and little attempt at repairor rebuilding seems to have been made. The hundredsof small children (who never seem to go to bed) beg,try to pick your pocket, openly offer black-marketcigarettes, and steal anything left unwatched for amoment. A naval officer’s wife, riding in a jeep withher husband, had her handbag snatched off her lap asthe jeep slowed up round a corner, An UNRRA nurse,convoying some penicillin in a jeep, refused to let a gangof youths board it and was being roughly handledwhen saved by the appearance of a truck with Americansoldiers. Families with children are still living incaves used as air-raid shelters. A hospital for abandoned,children has a death-rate of 70%, and 40% of the infantsadmitted are syphilitic. " See Naples and die " maybe all too likely.

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On the whole, Poona has taken the Peace very well.There have, of course, been a few overt complaints incases of special hardship-from Indian contractors, whosee their market slipping, or from VIPs, whose red tabshave suddenly acquired an uncomfortable instability.But the general mood has been one of quiet endeavour-making the best of a bad job, and saving what we canfrom the wreck. On VJ night, I happened to be visitinga friend in a club which is not one of my usual haunts,and it was touching to see how pluckily the old fellowswere taking it. At the end of the last war, if one canbelieve Philip Gosse’s A Naturalist goes to War, therewere some signs of weakness ; a permanent member said" Good evening " to a temporary member. But suchshameful scenes have not been repeated, and anyone whoturns up to dinner in a lounge suit is quite properly putin the " dirty room," away from the others.

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"Cedant arma togœ," said Cicero, "concedat laurealaudi," and did not, apparently, see any difficulty inthe change. Cincinnatus too, having won his battle,went back to his plough and, no doubt, to some roughsmock which fitted him well enough. Wellington’sgenerals in the Peninsula would have little difficultyin the transition from military to civil clothing ; on

their campaigns they wore frock-coats of their owndevising, and could retain them in the days of peace.But now there seems to be some difficulty for the return-ing warrior. Twice in one week there have beenanguished letters in the press. An army marches onits stomach and these letters show that the British is agreat army. A correspondent of the Times protestedagainst being directed, on demobilisation, to the clothingdepartment marked " 42, and portly " ; a writer tothe British ]}ledical Journal complained that he couldnot get into his civilian clothes when he left the Forces ;like the man in Dickens, he was not able to see his lowerregions, when standing, after some years of militaryservice. Our soldiers seem to be modelled on the generousFalstaff rather than the lean Cassius, or the scrawnyQuixote. To Cicero this would have meant little ; a

toga is designed to fit any figure : a twitch here or there,a sweep of the arm to throw the fold over an ampleshoulder, and the thing is done. Waistline measure-ments caused no pangs. Indeed, a majestic portlinessgoes well with a toga, as Charles James Fox foundout, after his service in the Home Guard of the time-judging by his statue in Bloomsbury Square. Butnowadays nobody solves his problem like that. Thedoctor who wrote to the British Medical Journal wasconstrained to a 28-day fast, taking nothing but fluids,an alkali mixture, and some vitamin preparations. Helost 30 lb., felt reasonably fit, and regained that prospectof his nether limbs which he had lost awhile. Peace

had its victory, no less renowned than war, and what awelcome home he must have received from those whocollected his rations and his points ; concedat laurealaudi.

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Over the courthouse floats a great Union Jack, andan imposing cordon of military police controls thecrowd of inquisitive Luneburgers. The courtroom is

impressive with its floodlights, microphones, interpreters,and cosmopolitan press gallery. The Bench, consistingof five senior officers in sparkling Service dress with caps,and the Deputy Judge Advocate General in wig andgown, perfectly sustains the dignity of British institu-tions. The long array of defending officers symbolisesthe scrupulous-almost too scrupulous-fairness ofBritish law.

, Opinions differ about the appearance of the Belsencriminals. I thought they were the foulest, mostnauseating collection of humanity that I had ever seen.Photographs give no inkling of how revolting theyappear in the flesh. The only two who in my humbleopinion show the slightest sign of finer features are oddlyenough the chief offenders, Kramer and Klein. Theyobviously have more intelligence and education thanthe rest.In the last twelve years the eadists and the mentally-

backward have terrorised their fellow-countrymen, andthey will do so again the moment the Allies leave thecountry. The problem of Germany is not political oreconomic : it is psychiatric.

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Back in 1943 my friend the Major from the War Officeshowed me a newspaper account of police-court pro-ceedings. It read something like this : " When arrested,the accused declared that he was a Major from the WarOffice." It pleased the real major,to see this incidentreported in a fashion which plainly conveyed that theunhappy accused suffered delusions of grandeur. Hisapproval of lay reactions to War Office Majors wasincreased by an incident in the film, -T Live in GrosvenorSquare. Solid, upright policemen guarding the roomwhere election votes were being counted gave way toallow the entry of an insistent gentleman as soon as hedisclosed that he was " a Major from the War Office."My friend was not surprised at this-he had never tiredof saying that he and his like held all the power andcompleted all the actions while Colonels, Brigadiers, andGenerals were put up to impress the public, mainly bywearing red tabs and occupying the first-class sleepers.But frankly his self-approval began to irritate me whenhe gloated over the appearance of a War Office Major inthe Daily Mirror beside Jane herself. Here at last wasreal fame, he thought-a fitting recognition of a gallanttype. But he had it coming to him, for at last perspec-tives have altered : Jane’s major is proved an impostorand at the time of writing the ridiculous Captain Codseems cast for complete triumph. I waited for a goodchance to rub this into the Major from the War Office,whose arrogance had increased beyond endurance. Buthe must have read the signs correctly for he hurriedlygot himself demobilised and I learn that he now hopes toattend postgraduate classes with a view to qualifyingas a psychiatrist.

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Recently I met a man who had just been releasedfrom a prison-camp in Thailand, where he had beensince the fall of Singapore. He and his companions gotoff lightly as far as actual atrocities were concerned.As an MO, he had been in fairly large camps most of thetime, and the worst incidents seem to have been in’small detachments under the care of irresponsible juniorofficers or NCOs. But the feeding had been very bad,and official contact with the outside world was absent;though, with that amazing ingenuity whichone remembersreading of in escape stories of the last war, they hadrigged up a wireless from carefully concealed parts. Itwas by this means that they heard of penicillin-the" wonder-drug "-but of its applications they had noinkling when first released, for they had thought it wassome kind of secret weapon for use against the Japs.

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Come on, you Classicists ! What does this notice ina main street of Athens mean ? "O.åO OYIN1:TUNTEPTEIA."