Of course, it is suggested that many of those who drift into the Anti-Suicide Bureau have no real intention of making away with themselves, but that they come there only to see what they can get in the way of money or other comfort.  As regards money, the answer is that, except very occasionally, the Army gives none, for the simple reason that it has none to give.  For the rest the fatal cases which happen show that there is a grim purpose at work in the minds of many of the applicants.  But I repeat, let us halve the figures, let us even quarter them, which, as Euclid remarked, is absurd, and even then what are we to conclude?

Before proceeding with my comments upon this work I ought to state, perhaps, that the Army has various branches of this Anti-Suicide Crusade.  Thus, it is at work in almost all our big cities, and also in America, in Australia, and in Japan.  The Japanese Bureau was opened last year with very good results.  This is the more remarkable in a country where ancient tradition and immemorial custom hallow the system of hara-kiri in any case of trouble or disgrace.

Moreover, the idea is spreading, Count Tolstoy is said to have been interested in it.  Applications have been received from the Hague for particulars of the Army methods in the matter.  Similar work is being carried out in Vienna, not by the Army, but on its lines.  The Army has been informed that if it will open an Anti-Suicide Bureau in Budapest, office accommodation, etc., will be found for it.  And so forth.

Colonel Unsworth who, until recently had charge of the Anti-Suicide Bureau from its commencement, is of opinion that suicide is very much on the increase, a statement that it would be difficult to dispute in view of the number of cases recorded daily in the local Press.  For instance, I read one on this morning of writing, in a Norfolk paper, where a farmer had blown out his brains, to all appearance because he had a difference of opinion with his wife as to whether he should, or should not, take on another farm.

Colonel Unsworth attributed this sad state of affairs to sundry causes.  The first of these was the intense and ever-increasing nervous pressure of our time.  The second, the spread of fatalism, The third, the advance of materialistic ideas, and of the general disbelief in the doctrine of future retribution.  The fourth, a certain noticeable return in such matters to the standard of Pagan nations, especially of ancient Rome, where it was held that if things went wrong and life became valueless, or even uninteresting, to bring it to an end was in no sense shameful but praiseworthy.  In illustration of this point, he quoted a remark said to have been made by a magistrate not long ago, to the effect that in certain conditions a man was not to be blamed for taking his own life.