LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2492, 21 June 1915, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FIOHTINC^EQUIPMENT. Sir,-—I feel thai, you would do a great sorvice to the community if you -would take up the. question of fighting equipment for the troops. It is a question which vitally concerns the men about to risk their lives for us. Of my own knowledge many commissioned and very many non-commissioned officers have left our shores without complete fighting accessories. They lackcd especially field glasses. Now it is absolutely sure that tho use of one pair of binoculars saves the lives of several men. An officer with experience states that ill the hands of a sergeant a pair will result on thy average in saving four lives. Suppose wt> bring it home to ourselves in this way: Let'us picturo the unending remorse if a relative, shot in the spine, were paralysed for life for want of one's own gift of this absolutely necessary adlunct to a life-and-death struggle. Take this in proof. Olio pair in the hands of a New Zealand officer caused thirty Turks to be put out of action on the banks of the Suez Canal. Inferentially this saved a corresponding less to our hearths and homes. We promptly reject short-sighted men, but many of out picked leave us witlioul any what may be called "militaty eyes" at all. The Wellington Patriotic Society has dono a little for officers who have gone to the front, but only a fraction of what was needed. A prodigious and successful effort Is now boing made to secure funds to palliate tho sufferings of the winded. It is quite easy for donors to the Carnival Fund to earmark their contributions "For equipment for the prevention of death and wounds." _ I do earnestly hope that this suggestion will be acted upon.—l am, etc.,