DEPARTMENTAL REMISSNESS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 26 November 1915, Page 4

DEPARTMENTAL REMISSNESS.

There is one thing above all ethers

that the proper authorities might try and render impossible, and that is the inhauman way of disclosing to parents that a son has given {his life for lis King and country. The momentarily stupifying effects of the abrupt, c< id, semi-brutal notification a Taihupe resident received yesterday, are too dreadful to contemplate. They wrote to their son, who has fought all through the Gallipoli compaign, and their letter comes back to them bearing the inscription in large, bold type, “Killed in Action.” Surely if the Postal Department is possessed of such information the authorities whose special duty lies in that direction should know whether a man is killed or not, and if he has fallen from an enemy’s missile, surely the least that could be done would be to convey the new r s to the lad’s parents in some humane form. We do not know what to attribute the remissness to, but when it comes to informing parents and sisters and brothers of their lost son and brothel in such an inconsiderable and callous manner, it is verging on the fringe of scandal. Before going to the Dardanelles ttife man who has given his life for his’country was engaged right from the commencement of war on an Admiralty collier, supplying coal to British wajrships in mid-ocean or wherever they might be on watch, a work that was attended by all the dangers of meeting enemy ships which •were then raiding the Pacific When he thought he could render better service in the trenches he didn’t hesitate, and although he has risked his life almost from the diclaration of war, his parents, of whom his letters 'prove he was profoundly fond.' get no consideraiton beyond the returned letter referred to. It is earnestly hoped that such occurrences will receive consideration by the Defence Department with a vifew to preventing the indescribable anguish such missives nnfohitnately cause.