SOLDIER M.P.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 267, 5 February 1941, Page 5

SOLDIER M.P.

WRITES FROM THE FRONT EXPERIENCE OF FRONT LINE, Sccond-Licutcnant A. G. Hultquist M.P., lias see i war at its hellish worst in the Western Desert, and like all other soldiers he longs for peace, but, he says, in a letter t.o the Hon. David Wilson, Leader of the Legislative Council, there must not be a compromise peace. The war must go on till the forces that make war are eradicated. "Since Christmas Day, I have been up to the front line in the Western Desert battle, and within sight of Bardia, which is in the process of falling at the present moment,"' writes Lieutenant Hultquist.

"I've seen Avar going full blast out there and the terrible results of it at Capu7?o, Solium, Bug Bug and Sidi Barrani, as Avell as at Mersa Matruh and Maktilla. Italian dead and graves, burnt-out tanks and deserted dug-outs and wrecked guns and ammunition by the million rounds and hand grenades by the thousand and ruins.

"War is hellish and I wish it were over more than I've ever wished before.

"The Italians are great little writers and in their dug-outs were letters by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. They hoard their letters and photos—photos of lovely women and beautiful children. To think we have to light against the husbands of those women and the fathers of those children because of their blind following of Hitler and Mussolini. Yet I've seen the Italian and Libyan prisoners when Ave offer them cigarettes. They forget their enemy status and want to be friendly right away. "Methinks they arc not fighting like they should because they do not believe they have any semblance of right to be against us.

"The Avhole .show is a poor advertisement of 2000 of Christianity and should inspire the saner nations to concentrate all their peacemaking energy toward a settlement that AAill make another Avar impossible beyond dispute. The Avar must go on till that is achieved and there must be no compromise settlement that includes any risk of a repetition of AA'ars like 1914-18 and this." —Labour Standard.