FOR HOME AND EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 190, 20 January 1915, Page 6

FOR HOME AND EMPIRE.

1 "IiVERY MAN IS DOING SOMETHING." BRITISH MANUFACTURER'S INTERESTING LETTER. As showing the determination of the British people to assist by all means in their power to bring Great Britain safely through' the present crisis, the fol- , lowing extract from a, letter received to-day by Mr. William Watson of Wellington, from a large manufacturer in England, is of more than usual interest. The writer says:—"My brother is at present servfcig in the London Scottish, I am therefore forced to stick to business, as we arc by ourselves, My sister's husband, Major T ——of the same regiment, is lying badly wounded in France, •My wife has lost a brother-in-law, a ;captain in the Worcestershire regiment, and a little son came into the world after his death. Of distant relatives we have -both lost more than a few. Don't get the impression that tlie men of this country are not doing their share. The papers naturally are always urging the necessity of more men, more men, but every man who is worth anything and can be spared is doing something. There are well, over two million British men in arms at the moment in this country and France, leaving out all colonials and other contingents, and recruits are still joining at the rate of several thousands a day. Nearly every business man, such as myself, who must stick to it or else close down and throw out anything from a hundred to a thousand worpeople, are trying to do our little bit. Over 30,000 of us in the London area are special constables, and after business we take over from the regular police the charge of every water supply, electric supply, gas, coal and other public necessities. The men cheerfully do their four hours at liight', and turning out at 2 a.m. till 6 a.m. is no picnic when it is pouring or freezing' and work has to be done as usual next day. However, this is a small thing compared with, what our boys are doing iu the trenches. New Zealand and the colonies are doing magnificently. , They show a fine spirit, but there is a tendency on the part of a few, the Canadians in particular, to make out that they have come all this way to fight while our chaps go to football matches."