LEAVE FOR THE MAIN BODY MEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 6

LEAVE FOR THE MAIN BODY MEN

Sir,—ls it not still possible to hope that the Government may redeem the m-omise given to the country of al- ' lowing the men of the Main Body to ■ isit their homes and friends in hcvt Zealand? I ask the question as one who has a son who left these shores with tho First Contingent, and has ever since endured m Egypt, in ballipoli, and in France, where he is still fchting, all tho unimaginable horrors, tho physical hardships, and the wearin* strain of mind and nervei inseparable* from such a life during those terrible years.- Nothing but the most dauntless spirit and the highest sense of national duty and patriotism in companionship with youth and vigorous health could have carried him and those other soldiers of the early days of the war through the vicissitudes and trials which they aio providentially spared to look back upon. But there is a limit to human endurance, and if that limit has ever been reached it must bo in the case of this small band of men who now ask for and so well deserve the small, hut to. them and to their people ]a New Zealand the previous privilege, withdrawn almost as soon as promised, of returning for a brief spell to their, country, homes and people. In a very receni) letter from Franco from one ot the Main Body, the writer says: I see ■wo are not now to get a home lur-loun-h. This is a bitter .disappoint* ment to us. It has fairly taken the heart out of some of us. The fact i£ nothing matters now very much. ■ These aro words of painfully pregnant meaning, and make sad reading just now for those of us who had built such pleasant hopes on the promise given us by the Hon. Sir James Allen. The alternative suggested by- the hon. gentleman of granting the Mam Body a few months' leave m England is a comfortless substitute for his unredeemed promise-comfortless both to us and to our sons. There are besides in it some objections too obvious to particularise, and wlucU should be plain from the most cursory consideration of tho conditions into which a soldier is throw am England, without home or kindred or the influences aud environment conducing to tho restoration of mental and bodily health or the spirit of enduring cheerfulness that only contact with, home and family caiv give, lho miJitnrv -authorities may take another and quite a different view of it, but it is lot the view that will commend ltsel! to us or to our sons. There is a , prevalent and very widespread feeling of discontent aud of.grievous disappointment over this matter m many, homes in New Zealand. A promise, solemn aud sacred to us, to our boys, and to the country, has been broken without any serious cause ov justification assigned, and hopes lightly raised have been wantonly and ruthlessly I SIiaUe ?FITHEk e SF SOLDIERS.