SPIRIT OF THE MEM AT THE FRONT

Nelson Evening Mail, 29 September 1916, Page 8

SPIRIT OF THE MEM AT THE FRONT

A NOBLE EXAMPLE. "There they fight and die. Here we eat, drink, and are merry, for to-morrow ■we do not die. That, for some of -us, is the : difference -between the men over there and! the people over here. Y> e need ■to 'be touched' by the fire of battle so that each of us in out safe, secure home may do our dutv," says the London btar. ■-' "There is a letter da The Times which wail help -us all to live and worK. It •was written by a young officer to his parents on 30th" June, on the eve of the Battle of the Somme. The writer was killed on the following day. This is his letter:— ... " T am writing this letter to you ]ust before going into action to-morrow morning about dawn. . " 'I am about to tafc'e part m the 'biggest .battle that has yet "been fought in France, and one which ought to help to end the war very quickly. -" M never felt more confident or cheerful in mv life before, and would not miss the attack for anything on earth. r ■'■■" "The men are in splendid form, and every officer and man is more happy ana cheerful than I have ever seen them. " *I have just been playing a rag game of football, in which the umpire had a revolver and a whistle. . . "'My idea in writing this letter is in ca-=e I am one of «the "costs," and get killed*. I do not expect to be, but such things nave happened, and are always impossible to fear death out here when one is no longer an individual, ibut a member of a regiment and of an army To be killed means -nothing to me, andl it is only you who suffer for it; vou reallv pay the cost. " 'I have been looking at the stars, and thinking what an immense distance thej are away. What an insignificant thing Se loss of, say, 40 years of life pared with them! It seems scaroely worth talking about. i i "•Well, good-bye, you darlings. Ti> not to worr£ about it, and remember that we shall meet again ready J quite soon r "'This letter is going, to if . . Lots of love. From your lo\iD |bTstar comments-. "It u t, a.<g*cration even to try to expound and explain *he Seat soul of the hero who"wrote letter. that it mirrors the soul of-'the new armies." If the writer had lived- the never have been posted or read oT published. Its tenderness, its e?a?taTron P it S selfless nobihtv, ite v»jon of sacrifice, its ummagmab c anaP-hood -would never have been revealed. "Let us take it as a precious gift and let fc inspire us. The man who, wrote it fell leading his company to the as sault. Manv men of the same stamp fell like him that day. Many ™ e " of *™ same stamp are falling like him every day. Are we at home living as nobly as they died? Have we won througn service and sacrifice the clear happme-s and cheerfulness to which they attorned? 4a we listen to the bickerings of ht*ie politicians and the squabbling* of pettj ■factiohists, we wonder whether the air of BKghtv is as healthy as the air of ' the Somme. That there should be mean little men is inevitable -but that the mean little men should dare so say the i mean little words- is not their fault, but ° U "Our dead are calling to us to be worthy of them, and our utmost and uttermost reply is but a poor small thing, alter all."