IT may seem a small concern, when the county's landscape is disappearing beneath rising flood water, to turn our attention to foreign fields.

But the fear of Second World War veterans that the people who look after war graves abroad may be in line for a pay cut deserves to interrupt the public's thoughts on this, the day when the eleventh month begins.

The worry comes just a month after Royal British Legion members in St John's and Hallow began their build-up to Remembrance Day by calling a halt to street poppy collections.

They were resigned to the fact that, as their ranks were thinned of people who were too old to collect, too few members of the younger generations were prepared to step into the breach.

It's one thing to think that the people's connection with the events which a poppy represents has become more slender with the passing of the years.

But it's another to fear that the Government may be trying to save £500,000 a year by cutting war graves gardeners' allowances and, in the process, accelerating that inevitable outcome.

We've said before that it's no coincidence that Britain took its eye off the sacrifices of the First and Second World Wars - and the last century's other conflicts - just as the "every-man-for-himself" mood of the 1980s took root.

But we can't believe that this Government, the one marketed on compassion, is about to follow suit.

Nor can we believe that many - if any - Members of Parliament would be happy to be associated with an official investigation, whenever it happens, which threatens to end with war graves going into decline.

In the vastness of the nation's defence budget, £500,000 is a trifle.

A message to veterans that their fears are unfounded would be the most appropriate way to complete the approach to Remembrance Day.