Letter: Poor recruits

Your articles "School ads may sell burgers and trainers" and "...bums on seats get bigger" (10 August) should have been printed next to each other. Of volunteers for the Army, only one in three reaches a regiment. Those responsible for their selection blame poor diet for the recruits' lack of physical endurance. Trainers are responsible for oversoft feet - many volunteers have never worn leather footwear.

Those of us reared in the 1920s were mentally and physically fit and had no difficulty attaining our ambition of serving our country.

L W Wright

Ipswich, Suffolk