A REFUTATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 24 July 1915, Page 4

A REFUTATION.

(To the Ed tor),.. Sir,—l wish to avail, myself of the hospitality cf your columns, to refute a cruelly untrue, statement that has been circulated. regarding, my nationality, and my sympathy in, the pres-' enc war. i am by birth .a German; I left Germany 07 years ago, and. after being at sea far some time I came t° New Zealand 05 years ago, and? became a British subject by being naturalised on the 15th January, RVJO. Since that day I have adopted New Zealand as my country, and I claim fo-day to be as loyal as any cf her sons. I have been living in the Walnut, near Taihape, for the past 10 years, where I have earned my living as a market gardener as quietly and honestly as any other settleif

It has been said of me that I have a sen fighting in the German army. I have a son who is a soldier, it is- true, but to happens to be fighting in the New Zealand expeditionary force, in the Dardanelles, at this moment, and as a New Zealander, and as his- father, 1 am proud of him. I have with me my letters of'Naturalisation, and letters from and photographs cf my soldier son, which I shall be glad to show to- you and to anyone who may care to see them.

I trust that this explanation wi!r suffice ot clear the doubts that arise from my German name, and to satisfy you and year readers chat I am as tru e and loyal a New Zealander as any of them.—l am, etc., A. 0. REICHARDT.

(We hav e inspected" the Naturalisation papers, letters and photographs, referred to by our correspondent, and they certainly bear out all he claims for them. At least one letter from his son, now fighting at the Dardanelles, has been published in these columns, and it certainly- left no doubt of the writer’s loyally to our Empire.—Ed. T.D.T.)