The grandson of the author of this letter has taken the Independent to task for yet more duff Christmas truce journalism: This comment is right: my grandfathers letter makes no mention of football being played on his part of the front, near Ypres in Belgium. In the family, we think that he would have said so if it had been, given that his detailed first-hand account comes across as both accurate and comprehensive in all other respects. Whoever at The Independent prepared this article, with its misleading use of the photograph of footballers captioned with my grandfathers words (I think I have seen one of the most extraordinary sights) is clearly in need of more training! A more interesting and worthwhile approach would have been to focus on how extraordinary this outbreak of goodwill, in the midst of a war which, as my grandfather says, caused so much bitterness and ill feeling, really was. It shows that compassion can manifest anywhere, even under the most unlikely conditions. Of course, the truce was grounded to some extent in shared practical needs, but it nevertheless has something of the miraculous about it. Dont we need more of this kind of thing in todays world? If you think so, sign the Charter for Compassion at Charterforcompassion.org/take-action. Simon Chater
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:12:25 +0000
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