revealed the fact
that six per cent attributed their downfall to curiosity, ten per cent
to ignorance, claiming that they had never been adequately warned by
the medical authorities, thirteen per cent to loss of home influences
and lack of leave, thirty-three per cent to drink and the loss of
self-control due to intoxication, while the largest number of all, or
thirty-eight per cent, attributed it to uncontrolled passion when they
were unconverted or had no higher power in their lives to enable them
to withstand temptation. But perhaps the chief cause of the spread of
immorality is the unnatural conditions under which the men are
compelled to live in a foreign land in war time.

Donald Hankey, the brilliant young author of "A Student in Arms," who
fell at the front, speaks thus of the moral problem in the soldier's
life:

"Let us be frank about this. What a doctor might call the 'appetites'
and a padre the 'lusts' of the body, hold dominion over the average
man, whether civilian or soldier, unless they are counteracted by a
stronger power. The only men who are pure are those who are absorbed
in some pursuit, or possessed by a great love; be it the love of clean,
wholesome life which is religion, or the love of a noble man which is
hero-worship, or the love of a true woman. These are the four powers
which are stronger than 'the flesh'--the zest of a quest, religion,
hero-worship, and the love of a good woman. If a man is not possessed
by one of these he will be immoral. . . . Fifteen months ago I was a
private quartered in a camp near A----. . . . The tent was damp,
gloomy, and cold. The Y M C A tent and the Canteen tent were crowded.
One wandered off to the town. . . . And if a fellow ran up against 'a
bit of skirt' he was generally just in the mood to follow it wherever
it might lead. The moral of this is, double your subscriptions to the
Y M C A, Church huts, soldiers' clubs, or whatever organization you
fancy! You will be helping to combat vice in the only sensible way."

We agree with Donald Hankey that the appetites hold dominion over the
average man, whether civilian or soldier. We do not wish to make any
sweeping generalizations or accusations. We have no means of knowing
how many men are immoral in peace time, as we have in war time. We
only know that conditions of ordinary times are intensified,
aggravated, and multiplied; and they are revealed in war time as never
before, and thrown upon t