A CITIZENS APPEAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 169, 6 April 1918, Page 7

A CITIZENS APPEAL

Sir,—"Organiser's" letter, under'the 11 above heading, has every appearance f] of having been "written to order." He ' j appeals to your readers to enthusias-1 „ tically support "the Red Jersey appeal r for £50,000," and his language and g "patriotism" are of the well-worn type, j n Perhaps it never occurs to him, and | b those who think with him, that the. n existence of the Y.JI.C.A., Salvation K Army, and other kindred institutions j 11 are a shameful reflection imon any j c iiation, Government, or people, and n doubly so at times like these. The other side of the picture he ignores, or probably "doesn't- want to „ see." Thousands and hundreds of j, thousands spent on racing, gambling, 8:

and vice, and spent far in excess of I'ormal times, fepent, too, wiin a callous indiileience to the heroic lads lighting lor tne Empire, and receiving every encouragement and support from the Press a the Dominion, who desecrate the Sabiiath by placarding the infamous "odd;," upon their windowpanes ami insult the war bulletins by putting them side by side with "racing results,'' gs if the two wore of kindred importance. True Unit r;om start to finish New Zealand Ims thought more of, and gladly spent more upon, racing and gambling tnnn it would on ii.j war. It raced when Uallipoli was fought, raced during the Norm Sea light, raced whilst Kitchener was killed, and has been racing at almost every critical period of the war. Last week, the worst week'of the war, when hundreds of thousands of brave men were dying, it spent £40,(J1k) in one day at Riccarton—£4oi)'J in excess of last year —and the Press office windows 'had the "odds" ami "results" side bv si'.lcwith the war news. In face nf these hideous facts—facts which speak the true sentiment of tho New Zealand publio plainer than any ''ihreopeiuiy-p;ece contribution" to " a war fund—how can there be either loyalty, "patriotism," or anything ?lse in New Zealand, or for the matter of that in the Y.M.C.A. or the Salvation Army movement? I have not yet seen these institutions uttering their protests or petitioning the Government ror a. cessation of these evils; on the contrary, you find them going ip the "sports" clubs and taking money they know to have been "filched from tho other fellow," and devoting it with mock solemnity '"to God's cause." The amount of money wasted by NewZealand on so-called "sport," but in reality oil "respectable crime," since the outbreak of war would have provided all our boys' wants at' the front, rendered unnecessary all this hideous :adging and collecting, this "never :!ono business" and its unsatisfactory destination of the proceeds. Better • far to tax the people, stop their criminal waste and the still more criminal luxuries of the women— women who never "came out" like it in their lives before. I do not suppose the world's history has produced such a callous parallel since the advent of And what does it teach? What Joes it illustrate? A selfish unscrupulously, an utter indifference to the fate and the of the poor poung lads, some only full-grown children, who have-not yet tasted life and pet have been sent forward by this vainglorious, empty vanity to safeguard "its interests" and prolong its selfish ssistencc. • War is a damnable thing, the vilest thing man ever put his hand to, but it s infinitely more damnable to witness the indifference, the reluctance, the biding back of the Dominion's "iiianliaod" from its M.P.'s, its Mayors, its public men, aye, and the everyday married citizen in the street—who bhould long ago have taken the lead — behind the young lads of 18 and 20. ; 30 long us thesev half-grown lads were ivilling recruits all was well. But now, is one of your contemporaries puts it, 'the life blood" of tho nation, the married men. may be called. Will they go, )r will their love of "sport" and vice, their women's vanity place "other obstacles" in the way, and more lads— ir as Colonel Malone said, more boys— ije sent' in their place ? Ix:ho answers, Which? —I am, etc., SAVE THE BOYS.