LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1723, 14 April 1913, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

"PAY FOR THIS, YOU APRIL FOOL."

i S ' < I ' ,_1 £ am , one .°.f> i fancy, a vast majorityor sober citizens who werolnot at Jill pleased with the Telegraph Department s reply in this case. It that tele-, gram was not offonsivo, it is difficult to understand what "offensive" means. If a man takes sixpence out of your jocket, aim then calls you a fool for letting liini <to it, your natural impulso is to knock umi down, which seems to indicate that you are offended. I sympathise warmly with the Wellington citizen who thought tlio telegram should not havo been accepted by the Department, and I advise tlio Postmaster-General to make the amende honourable 111 the gentlemanly manner winch conies natural to him. Otherwise, on April 1, 1914, he may find himself the recipient of hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of "Pay for this" telegramn, put 11 . 1 ,. justly indignant. Wellington citizen aforesaid. For, let us not forget that sixpence is a small matter, but . any W ur ,J' unredressed is a great - one; fancl the Wellington resident may be a man prepared Greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour's at the stake.' , I am, etc., ■ A CHKISTCHUHCH RESIDENT. THE PROBLEM OF THE MILITANT SUFFRAGIST. Sir.—ln your article of to-day, uuder the above heading, you say "Mrs. Paukliurst is making good her promise not io take food in prison, and so far the authorities have not ordered forcible feeding. . . . What the authorities really fear is the successful suicide of some, misguided Suffragist in prison." After nil that has been published on the subject of long fasting it is surprising that tho authorities can havo any such fear, or that they enn resort to the barbarous and cruel practice of forcible feeding. It is this process which makes the women ill and leads to their early release. Voluntary abstention from food does' not eauso "starvation" or death until mrcny weeks, m some cases months, have elapsed. Tho voluntary fast has a purifying effect on the body aud mind, and I feel convinecd that, if the women prisoners were left to fast as long as they pleased tlio day would come when they, would be "hungry," and then they would cat, and they would be in a much saner frame of mind. It is a very wonderful tiling that, after the second or third day of a fast, all sense of hunger leaves one, and food has absolutely no attraction, and is even repulsive. When nature has completed the purifying process hunger .returns, and the patient is then well in body and mind. I think it is Extremely-improbable that any of these women prisoners would continue their fasts beyond the - point vrlieit "natural hunger" returns. In order to-be on tho safe side, food should bo placed in the cells and renewed every day, so that it is alwafs fresh and nice, and if this were done I feel sure that tho day would come when the prisoners would.eat, and bo all the better for their voluntary, fasts.' If it becomes the practice to forcibly feed, ■and thus make so ill that they havo to 1)6 released all prisoners who Tefuso food, then it is only a matter of time when all criminals will bo adopting "hunger strikes." I hopo the' authorities will have sufficient sense to let Mrs. Pankhurst fast as' long as slio pleases; no harm would come of it, and probably much good.—l am, etc., LLOYD JONES. Wanganui, April 11.