REAL COURAGE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5319, 4 February 1947, Page 3

REAL COURAGE

The courage of "Private X", was praised by an M.P. Private X went overseas early in the war. From him, in the later years, j came long letters to his mother. Vivid, cheerful letters hbout advenj tures and strange experiences on battlefronts in various parts of the world. She n ever knew that the letters were written from prison — when he was serving a sentenee for mutiny in Alamein. Mr1. A. G. Bottomley, Parliamentary Under- Secretary for the Dominions, and M.P. for Chatham, Ivent, told the story (rvithout details of the sentenee) at a meeting in his division. He said he' learnecl the truth after the mother had written asking why her son was still in the Army while his friends had been demobilised. "Instead of crying out against Fate, this boy took his punishnrent like a man and wrote in his prison cell letters which had kept his mother happy," he said. "I have never had the heart to let her know the truth. This young man has guts — real guts and I take ofl' my hat to him."