THAT PATRIOTIC QUESTION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 August 1917, Page 4

THAT PATRIOTIC QUESTION.

To the Editor. Sir, —The report of the meeting of the Patriotic Committee,||. which appeared in yesterday’s issue” of your paper, speaks for itself, and should leave no doubt in the minds ,of your readers as to whether the first report, as furnished by Mr Munro was a fair account of the business dealt with at the meeting. I think it would be quite sufficient that the full report which appeared to-day be allowed to stand as a convincing reply to Mr Munro’s and Sir Thurston’s letters were it not for two points which, call for some comment; (1) Mr Munro denies that the letter which formed the subject of. the major portion of his report, contained a request for a. grant towards the expenses of the Returned Soldiers’ Bali. It is true that the letter did not specifically mention the word “expenses,” but it was headed “Returned Soldiers’ Ball,” was signed by the joihT secretaries of that Committee, and was a plain request for-a grant out of a fund in the hands of the Patriotic Society;. but contained no suggestion of other object outside that of the ball. There surelymust have been some object for which the money was needed. Even Mr Munro will surely concede this in fairness to the Ball Committee, and if the object w r as not that of assisting toward the cost of the entertainment, then perhaps Mr Munro can enllghten'us as to what that object was. Even Mr Thurston, who has “taken up the cudgels” for “the opposition,” admits the correctness of this interpretation of the letter when he says “it was held by the minority : that the coming ball presented a splendid opportunity for the Patriotic Society to “give some assistance towards the entertainment of the men.” In case there is any misapprehension on the part of your readers, I think I should state that there has been no application received by the Patriotic Society for a grant in aid of the establishment of a Returned Soldiers’ Cluo or Association. (2) A point is made in both Mr Munro’s and Mr Thurston’s, letters of the “opportunity which presented itself of the Patriotic Society being represented at the ball,” ty. means of a donation from the funds. It should be known that the letter from the Ball Committee contained er a suggestion' “nor an invitation to the Society to represented at the entertainment. rf £ It was simply a straightforward request for a grant which a majority of the Committee could not see its way clear to accede to-. The ten pounds is therefore still available to help pay the incidental expenses of running the Society instead of encroaching for such expenses on the funds" which were collected purely for the purposes of Relief. It should also not be lost sight of that had not the majority of the Committee taken up the stand it did, the ten pounds would have gone to “assist towards the * entertainment” of about, thirty returned soldiers and some 500 civilians.—l am, etc., ARTHUR JAMES. August 21, 117. (We have received a letter from “Onlooker” on the above subject, but owing to pressure on our space it has been held over till to-morrow. —Eu.)