WHAT OUR READERS THINK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2483, 9 June 1915, Page 6

WHAT OUR READERS THINK

THE FARMERS AND THE WAR. j i (To tlie Editor.) 1 Sir, —In your issue of June 4 you { Dublisli a, letter from "Back-blocks," but from the statements lie makes I do not j think ho lias been any further than the f suburbs. I live over forty miles from j a railway station, and the roads are so ( bad that I have already laid in stores t till tlio beginning of October, when I i hope the roads will again be good t enough to get a wagon over, so that I 1 can fairly well claim to be in. the back- J blocks. Your cor respondent says that | cifcv dwellers would bo astounded if tlioy knew that the young men in the f bark-blocks never see a newspaper, j Surely lie does not expect any sane- person to believe this. Allow mo to as- s sure him that the country boys follow ) the war very closely, and know all nboul Clallipoli and the doings of our 1 brave heroes there. The country is 1 responding to the call equally as well [ as the towns. It must be remembered j iliat farmers aro nearly all married men: the sons of farmers and the workers nn the farms who are single fsnow their duty, and ,irc doins it. ( TW» h:>r, h'fln a Int. nf i.-nn-cspniidetKii t la your oapor, Mr. Editor, about "sbirk-J ;

ers," and screeching letters about single men not volunteering. I hold that no man has a right to say to another "You should ko to tho front" unless ho is going himself. Tho only persons ' >vho liavo a riglit to address a recruiting meeting arc men in khaki, who are off to take tho risks of war—other speakers must feel tho qualms of conscience, no matter how eloquently they may speak to hide it. —1 am, etc., FARMER.