A SOLDIER S TOUCHING FAREWELL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1702, 24 April 1917, Page 4

A SOLDIER S TOUCHING FAREWELL

The last letter written to his parents in Dannevirke by Corporal Clifford H. Curran, who was killed in action, has just come to hand. The letter must have been written prior to his going into action, as the envelope and its contents bear the marks of the bullet or bullets that laid him low. The inferno into which the New Zealanders were going forward must have been hot, as the tone of the. letter discloses the fact that Corporal Curran expected to be killed. The left-hand corner of the envelope bears bloodstains, while written across the top are the words, “Pleas ard” —the other portions have been shot away. The words are probably “Please forward.” In the course of the letter, Corporal Curran writes from France: —“Dear ones left behind, — Now that I am gone, I do not regret ray action. I should like to have stayed with you, but God (next portion shot away) will be done. I prefer to have died doing what I considered to be ray duty for home and country, than to have lived the life of a coward and shirker. lam sure, dear ones, that dear as I may be to you, you prefer me to be where I am, with ‘Killed in action’ on my grave, rather than be with you with

‘Coward’ (next portion shot away) on, never to be shaken off. Well, dear ones, good-bye, until by God’s will we meet in the better land.— Clifford.”