Public Opinion

Southland Times, Issue 24227, 10 September 1940, Page 11

Public Opinion

HELP FOR MEN OF THE NATIONAL RESERVE

To Tire Editor

Sir,—The manner in which the people of Southland responded to the Fighter Aeroplane Fund appeal shows how eager they are to give money to something practical. We now have in Southland a complete company of the National Military Reserve, recruited entirely from men who served in the last war and, I venture to say, the keenest soldiers in the country. These men spend a large number of their well-earned hours of rest in strenuous training, and are, I think, worthy of some little recognition by the people for whose defence they are preparing. Some of them come from as far as the other side of Riverton, paying nearly all their own travelling expenses. I would suggest t|iat a sum of money be raised to provide hot pies and supper for them as well as dinners on full-day parade days. These men did their stuff years ago and were well aware that the comforts provided for them from patriotic moneys very seldom got past the bases, where the “base wallahs” got their sticky fingers on the “buckshee.” A fund could be opened to be administered by the local Territorial Force Association or some such body, with, say, the Officer Commanding the and the quartermaster on the committee. These men have put themselves at the disposal of the authorities for any service while younger and fitter men still pass their evenings in picture theatres or dance halls.

Your paper did wonderful work for the Fighter Fund. What about sponsoring this appeal, which, though on a very much smaller scale, should be equally popular?—Yours, etc., PASSCHENDAELE. September 9, 1940.