From The Spectator, 24 October 1914:
EVIL practices, when they concern the relation of the sexes, are often allowed to fester into scandals, and even to bring moral and bodily ruin, before ordinary English men and women can induce themselves to speak of them. The newspapers lately have contained many allusions to the presence of undesirable women about the training camps, or to the presence of women whose intentions might not be expected to be but actually are undesirable; but these allusions have been so discreet, so guarded, so fatally free of offence, that the reader most nearly concerned in them might almost be forgiven if he concluded that delicacy required him to take no notice of them. Prudery is sometimes a very dangerous thing. The congregation of enormous numbers of men in a comparatively few small areas under unprecedented conditions is having results that were easily to be foreseen, but are much less easily removed. To speak in a hushed whisper of the dangers which may do a deep injury to the well-being and efficiency of the armies now in the making is, to our way of thinking, wrong and absurd.
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