“A NOVEL STRIKE.”

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 8 November 1920, Page 3

“A NOVEL STRIKE.”

To tlie Editor. Sir, —Hay I be permitted to place “A .Novel Strike” in a different light from that in which it is regarded in • Monday’s "Mail”? A letter from Mi* Arthur \Vefhey in Paris (where she and her husband have been aiding the French tied Cross since 1915) states: “The devastated regions would make you sad if you could see them—four hundred miles of ruin and desola tion. How long it will take to rebuild cue cannot tell. The Government can do but little owing to its linaucial con ration, so there is really only private enterprise to tackle the job. Our com mittee is rebuilding the schools and ‘Maine’ (the mayoralty) til. one of out villages, and we hope to do more. W» are now supplying voltages with furni lure, linen, kitchen utensils, etc., am! the Government has begged us to j undertake more villages. Our work i- j in the country of the Sotmnc, a very interesting and historical part and ( full of romance.” Pour hundred miles of ruin—about I ns far as' front Wellington to Auck j laud, is it not ’ If our own fair North Island were laid waste by enemies, j wouldn’t our own men desire to work j more than eight hours, even as our pioneers did. at the task of re-con strncting bridges, railways, towns, am. homes.’ Continuous work is comfort ing to many French workers now; i: I helps them to forget their mournful } surroundings and sad memories, anu j one cannot help thinking it natural fm , them to feel it a hardship to have to ) stop work at the end of eight hours, j They need homes again so badly, | schools and other buildings —and they j need money too —one is obliged to J admire their pluck iii trying to work j at two different jobs in the twenty- j four hours, thus earning double money, j May they find some relaxation in a j change of occupation, and “Good luck to them!” let us all wish. “Vive h. I France!” Vivent les Fnuicais, nos t bons amis.—Yours, etc. j H.E.W. ; Otaki, November 4tli, 1920.'