"WHITE FEATHER TRAGEDY."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 310, 7 October 1915, Page 8

"WHITE FEATHER TRAGEDY."

i » i Some very strong remarks on the conduct of line “white feather” women i ere made by Mr Reginald Kemp, the Dputy Coroner fee West Middlesex, at l an inquest at Ealing on Richard Charles Roberts, aged 34, a taxi-cab | driver of Shepherd’s Bush, who com- ; inittsd suicide in consequence of worry caused by his rejection from the Army and the taunts cf women and other { a me. tour recruiters. It was added that 'fie tried to join the Army in October, I but was 'rejected cn account of a weak ! heart. That alone, said his widow,had depressed him, and he had been worried because he thougjht he would lose i his license owing to the state of his heart. H e had also been troubled by the dangerous iMness of a child. A soldier relative said that the deceased’s M e had been made “a perfect misery” by women, who taunted him and called him a coward because he did not join tine Army. The Coroner, speaking with some warmth, said the conduct of guch women was abominable. It was scandalous that women who knew nothing of individual circum,stances should be allowed to go about making unbearable the lives of men who had tried to do their duty. It was a pity they had nothing better to do. Here was a man who perhaps had been cV’iven to death by a pack of silly wo- | men. He hoped something would soon be doiip to put a stop to such conduct.