Sir, – I am bemused by the letter headlined "Wartime conscription" (March 8th).
Conscription should not be understood as some beneficent conferral of privilege on the part of the administrative state, but as a loathsome, and deeply morally contestable, last recourse in a circumstance of war.
Furthermore, all those “female army personnel” whose services, the letter writer alleges, have been “dispensed with in favour of those of their male counterparts”, are, in fact, free to remain and fight should they so choose.
At a time when Ukrainian children are being separated from their fathers on the borders of neighbouring states, those watching the situation from afar should hesitate before suggesting their mothers might be conscripted too. – Yours, etc,
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SEÁN DONNELLY,
Warsaw.