War is a very serious matter Your readers will have seen television pictures of child soldiers in Africa and know of the dreadful atrocities they are forced to commit. Similarly from Syria and Iraq we hear reports of the way terrorists train children and teenagers to become suicide bombers.

Even during the darkest days of the Second World War Britain did not send children into battle. Hitler, however, had no hesitation at all in using fourteen and fifteen year olds during the dying days of his regime.

For these reasons I was filled with dismay on seeing the picture showing two children in helmets and battle uniform brandishing automatic weapons (Gazette, July 9, ‘Back to the 40s in Operation Home Guard’).

Whether this was a festival and whether the guns were real or not is beside the point. No young person under the age of 18 should be dressed in camouflage and allowed to play at war.

War is too serious a matter. Playing at war deludes young people into ignoring the consequences of armed conflict. The terrible pictures we see daily on our TV screens from the Middle East and the flood of refugees arriving in Europe seeking refuge from armed conflict reveal those consequences all too clearly.

Peter D. Leeming

Kendal