This, the first Editorial that I have written in the year of 1975, seeks to clarify some misconceptions that appear to be prevalent in the land. The first, perhaps because I am an unsubtle fellow, greatly surprised me! It came from the petulant pen of R.W. Morrell whose personal hair-shirt seems to be his Newsletter, which he continues to buy although seemingly hates its contents. He writes "I fear that it is Mr. Featherstone who has singularly missed the essential complexion of his paper, for he appears to still think of it in identical terms to those that applied when he was both owner and Editor." It never occurred to me to think of it in any other way because I am still owner (albeit part-) and Editor and to me the magazine is produced in the same manner and with identical aims as those that have prevailed since 1962. He goes on to write "As the Newsletter is now a commercially owned paper published, one assumes, for profit not philanthropy, potential authors can reasonably expect some return for their work rather than permit a commercial undertaking to exploit their efforts for its gain." Of course, this is completely wrong because, far from making a profit from the magazine, Roy Belmont-Maitland of Tradition has incurred a steadily increasing financial loss since taking it over in March 1974. Had Wargamer's Newsletter not been backed by the financial resources of Tradition it is almost certain that the current economic climate would have forced it to cease publication, along with MINIATURE WARFARE, some months ago. Tradition are performing a commendable public service to the hobby by ensuring that its one and only magazine remains alive. In that connection I would like to point out that this is the twelfth issue since the new style Newsletter came out in March last year. Since that time its increased size has quadrupled printing costs which, coupled with treble the price for envelopes and postage rising from 2 1/2P to 7P per copy, has placed a great financial burden upon Tradition. This is particularly so when considering that the bulk of Newsletter subscribers had their full years subscription honoured at the old price, thus incurring a substantial loss to the publishers on each issue. It is hoped that, having received some of the fruits, that subscribers will rally round and continue their subscriptions besides seeking others to help bolster our circulation even if the inflationary crisis means inevitable rises in subscription costs. The second misconception arises from a rather pedantic review of my book WARGAMES THROUGH THE AGES - Volume II in the American magazine Courier (Bulletin of the New England Wargamers Association). Having previously written a glowing review of my book TANK BATTLES IN MINIATURE - THE WESTERN DESERT CAMPAIGN, I am certain that Arnold J. Hendrick the reviewer has no personal bias and that what he has written is his sincere and honest opinion. Nevertheless, like many reviewers, he seeks to read into my manuscript opinions and aspects that are not intended to be there and then, because he cannot find them, castigates me for their omission! Yes, the book does lack such items as "Troop frontages, marching speeds, battle casualty levels" simply because their inclusion would carry the book from its avowed "pleasure-wargaming" attitude into realms that transform what is basically a game into a brain-thrashing military exercise. Finally, the captious Mr. Morrell still accuses this magazine of refusing to publish objective evaluations of wargaming figures for fear of losing advertising revenue. Old readers will know that I have never pulled punches or been afraid of speaking my mind in these pages WHEN I FELT MYSELF IN THE RIGHT but I refuse to join the mischievous ranks of amateur reviewers who damn commercial wargames figures with unauthoritive and ill-informed criticism. Neville Dickinson of Miniature Figurines feels much the same as I do about reviewers, having suffered more than most from their malpractices and in a recent letter to another publication he wrote "I .... submit to any potential or current reviewer that before they offer any criticism to or about manufacturers products they take a few lessons on art, especially design, and then appraise any model with the amount of knowledge he has picked up. All the time it must be remembered that even then he is an untrained, unskilled amateur when it comes to figure designing." I could not agree more. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 155 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com