LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2674, 21 January 1916, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FFtIENDS OF THE WOUNDED. A VALUABLE INSTITUTION. Sir, —If you will be good enough to find space lor this in your journal, I believe many parents who have given tlieir sons to tlie Empire would be glad to read the following extract from the Headquarters' letter of the Church Army to its New Zealand secretary, dated November 4: — "You may have heard before this that wo have a number of huts and tents at the rest, and refreshment camps near Gallipoli, and no doubt considerable numbers of New Zealanders find rest and refreshment in them. We have visited a large number of lonely New Zealand wounded in this country, and find the New Zealand officers most helpful in this connection. "We may be able to send you by a later mail a photograph of two New Zealanders for whom we have been able to get friends. We had one appeal from a New Zea[ land mother asking us to visit a Now Zealander in London, and 111 spite of the six weeks the letter took to reach ns, we lyere yet in time to visit the man. Thought you would like to knowabout this work, and we will write again if anything striking happens in this direction. —(Signed) W. Spencer,. Hon. Sec."

Anyone desiring to have a wounded friend in England. visited is hereby invited to address Captain Carter, hon. secretary of "Friends of Wouuded" Department, Church Array Offices, Marble Arch, London, W. None could forsoo the great demands that would bo made on all branches of hospital work during this fremendou6 war, but it is most cheering to see how those demands havo been mot by the Bed Cross Societies of all countries involved, and also' by willing helpers who have offered their services to the Governments in this emergency. The Red Cross is rejpocted everywhere, and many deeds of kindness aTe continually being done under the emblem which carries our thoughts to, and reminds us of, "Jesus, the lover of men." At the outset of the war the offer of the Church Army to provide and. staff a hospital of 100 beds at the'front was accepted, and has been in full use since. This patriotic action of the Church Army costs £150 a week, and their fleet of motor ambulances and refreshment cars (between 50 and 60) entails an eddi-

tional outlay of £250 to £300 a week. The Church Army is indeed doing a patriotic work. New Zealand has been privileged to help in this noble work by annual donations forwarded by the New Zealand secretary, residing at Weber, derived from cash donations and from black and straggler wool, skins, aaid bides sent for sale to Messrs/Williams and Kettle, of Napier and Dannevirke. TTie Bank of New Zealand sont £25 last week to headquarters of iho C.A. for their war hospital in France. Donors of £50 are allowed to name a bed. Believing that this work for the wounded will appeal to many New Zealanders, the Weber secretary instructed the executiye at Home to name a bed "The New Zealand Bod," feeling sure the £50 would he made up.—l am, etc., F. W. WHIBLEY, Hon. Sec. Church Army in New Zealand. Weber. '

COMPULSION FOR ALL. Sir, —Re the English Bill for the com. puisory enlistment of single men between the ages of 19 and 40. It seemß to me a grossly unfair thing that just a certain section of' the community should be conscripted: what about the oonscription of lafiour and the conscription of wealth? The man who goes to the trenches gives his all, but his brother, the worker, is left to earn bigger wages than he has ever earned before; strike, if he wishes; in fact, lead just the same Hf e as in peace times; and the same applies to the wealthy, many of -whom are making excessive profits through the war. and are exploiting the dependents of those who are in the firing-line. What is wanted is equality of sacrifice on the part of every section of the community.—l am, COMPULSION FOR ALL. HELIGOLAND. Sir, —How completely your correspondent "Englishman" has had the wind taken out of his sails 1 He now admits that, not even with the assistance of our Reference Library, can he find any evidence to support his attempt to saddle Mr. Gladstone with the responsibility of allowing Germany to acquiiv Heligoland, which for some reason he was desirous of doing. As bearing upon this matter, I should be glad if you could find room for the enclosed extract from a responsible paper, which is very appropriate at tho preseiit time.—l am, etc., NEW ZEALANDER. [Enclosure.] THE HANBINGTOVER OF THE HELIGOLAND. THE GREAT BLUNDER OF THE

° MARQUIS OF SALISBURY,

A certain section of the Englishspeaking Press is particularly busy just now making excuses _ for the late Marquis of Salisbury's share in handing over to Germany,_ Heligoland, the. second Gibraltar which Germany now finds so useful to her. The contention is that the Marquis of Salisbury, a man whom, it ft interesting to recall now, the great Bismarck once designated "a lath, painted like iron," certainly showed "lack of foresight, but received full worth in the concessions Germany granted to England in .Zanzibar." With, out going into the question of whether the Zanzibar concessions were a sufficient quid pro quo just now, and taking the lack of foresight excuse, those that think, must only remark that if Lord Salisbury was the brilliant statesman he is credited with being, ho should certainly have seen as far ahead as the German statesmen did when they opened up negotiations which resulted in them securing such a stupendous factor in tho defensive and offensive operations of Germany. The talk that Germany was not then to be considered as a possible enemy of Britain will now, as it should have been practically since the nineties, be dismissed as- so much nonsense, and it was all part of the scheme of hers to conquer Great Bri-

tain that. Heligoland was secured as one of her foremost writers of the day, Mr. E. J. Maxse, the clever, capablo editor of the "National Review," pointed out at the time. Still, we have

the cool assurances put forward by the Salisbury admirers that Great Britain shonr3 he satisfied now, and console herself with tho fact that it was a misfake. German statesmen and diplomats never made mistakes like that, and, fortunately, Great Britain's latter day statesmen have not either, else we would no doubt find our' "kultured" enemy in a more fortunate position than that the handing over of Heligoland tiy the Marquis of Salisbury gave tlicm.