SOUTH INVERCARGILL’S MEMORIAL.

Southland Times, Issue 18846, 11 June 1920, Page 2

SOUTH INVERCARGILL’S MEMORIAL.

To the Editor. Sir, —From time to time since returning from the War I have read advertisements in northern papers asking for attendance at a dance “in aid of the soldiers’ memorial fund.” To the returned soldier who thinks, this kind, of thing is little else than disgusting, and I was wont to congratulate Southlanders in having a greater sense of decency. But now, what do we find? The South Invercargill Borough Council has decided to erect a memorial hall providing, it is hoped, a lucrative investment through revenue from amusement, and containing up-to-date Council Chambers where the gentlemen who constitute the Council may sit in state and congratulate themselves on a very shrewd move. For surely it is a very shrewd move to take advantage of a misguided public sentiment in order to raise money to erect a structure of this nature. If a hall ami Council Chambers are needed and the people will consent to their being built, let them be built, but do not shelter behind our dead brothers in order to call them anything beyond a hall and Council Chambers, A memorial, forsooth! If the departed spirits of the men who gave their lives with no roofs over their heads could view the councillors complacently planning to place themselves in a setting of comfort —“becoming their position,” they think — through the most ghastly tragedy the world has ever known one could, perhaps, if one had lived with them as I have, imagine their feelings. Let me tell you, sir, that after 19 months at the front as a stretcherbearer I heard many a (lying man voice his last thoughts. Always (hey were of a mother, a sister, or a sweetheart-. Is it not then an insult to the dead’s dear ones, as well as to the memories of the dead themselves, that this scheme should be mooted, let alone gone on with ? One can imagine those patriotic councillors looking on at the building in the course of erection and chuckling over the promising luxury of the fittings. Suddenly someone will ask: “Oh. what about that stone for the names of the soldiers?” and they will know that something has been forgotten. The present chambers should be big enough for South Invercargill, and, If it is not, let the councillors sit out in the open as the soldiers had to, rather than shelter their precious bodies beneath a “memorial.” At least, I am sure of one thing; That the proposal will not get the vote of A DIGGER WITH A MEMORY. Invercargill, June 10.