TROOPS ON HOLIDAY LEAVE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2656, 30 December 1915, Page 6

TROOPS ON HOLIDAY LEAVE.

' SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION ' WANTED. Sir, —AY ill you allow me, through your valuable paper, to express my sorrow and indignation at the way in which many of our soldiers spent their Christmas p I know some people ia Wellington made great efforts to entertain them, and even went so far as to give up their own beds, but there were certainly many who did not caro what became of the poor fellows away from their own homes on Christmas Day. I spoke to several. One told mo he had spent Friday night in a doorway, as no accommodation. was to ■ be found. He had 110 breakfast or dinner on Christmas Day, although he had money to pay for it (the men received three weeks' pay on Friday, I hear). Towards ovening he heard that the Town Hall was open for soldiers. Another said lie tried as soon as ha got to town to get a bed for the night, but was Refused at each hotel, although at one a civilian was given a bed after the soldier was refused. He spent part of the night in a tramcar. Yet another was admitted to an. hotel, but was given no lied or blankets. He slept on his wet greatcoat. Another spent the night on the Town Hall steps, but (lie said) hundreds walked about in the rain all night. Surely Wellington has some building which could have been loft open to give our soldiers shelter, from the rain at least. I was out on Sunday morning and saw soldiers turning away from the closed doors of the Town Hall, and met many with a very homeless, uTTholiday look on their faces coming from tho direction of Sydney Street, where some food should have been provided. There were offers of help to do that made at the Town Hall on .Christmas" Night. Trusting you will insert this. —I am, otc., A SOLDIER'S MOTHER. . [Our correspondent is in error in stating that food was not obtainable at the Soldiers' Room in Sydney Street on Sunday. As to the lack of accommodation in tfio City, that was a very' real grievance, and was remedied, we understand, to some extent, by the Prime Minister arranging to lave tho Buckle Street Drill Hall thrown open to tho men for sleeping purposes. The same shortage of sleeping accommodation may be exacted when the men in the camps obtain their leave at Now Year, and tho military authorities will, we trust, take steps to meet the situation. It is not that hotels and board-' ingliouses are unwilling to take in tha men as our correspondent _ seems to suggest, but there simply is not sufficient accommodation for so mauy men in addition to the usual visitors to tha City at this time of the ycar.l