CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1915, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

OTHER MATTERS: THE PROBLEM SOLVED.

To the Editor. ■Sir, —''Don't attempt to argue with these people; they are to be pitied, because it is all through ignorance, as they have no conception of trench conditions, but there is a cure. Put them there for one night only, and next morning they -will recant," thus said a returned officer to me during my visit to Palmerston last week, when we were discussing treuch life, also rum. If it is not trespassing too heavily on your columns, kindly permit me to give an illustration which he vouches for. It was in a villainous trench knee-deep in sewage, also dead bodies and rats (the smell alone would have killed snakes); pitch-dark, and raining heavily, the ideal night for an attack. Rum was being served out, but a Cue, clean, well-set-up man, who had been a temperance advocate, refused it, saying it was only for fools. Overhearing this, a grizzly Yorkshire sergeant remarked: "A' knows Who'll be the first fu!e anyway." "Stand to arms!" was signalled, and those under cover had to come out and were soon wet, but they had to hang on till daylight, when an attack was supposed to be developing, and no chance of any breakfast. The man just referred to was seen collapsing. He was blue and white, and had dropped his rifle; his hands were powerless with cold. A passing officer noticed him, otherwise he would have lain there, and gave him out of his flask two good nips. When the officer came back he had revived, and enquired what he had got. "Rum, Army rum." ''Well, sir, I shall never curse it . again." Now, if Mr. Maunder had had to deal with this perishing soldier, as there was no fire within miles except artillery (and-it does not boil a billy) he would have given him some of the fluid the man was wading in all night, for in the Good Templar Hall, New Plymouth, where we held the Farmers' Freezing Works meeting last Monday, the startling legend, which Mr. Maunder swears by, stares you in the face, "Water is Best!" I did not 'intend writing again, because my last letter bumped the into a corner, from which there is no escape except by saying "Yes" or "No," the good old temperance wheeze about the bad effects of liquor being useless in this discussion, but I wanted to show what happens on the spot, as against the opinions of carpet-slippered theorists thousands of miles away Xow, this officer was a man according to Mr. Maunder's o\n heart. He would not join us in a wine because he felt in great form, but the affinity ends here, and he only drank when feeling unfit or in the trenches, and then it was "all I can get," but he pointed out that this Army rum, like Australian brandy, was food and drink. You could not buy this rum here. Instead of going to the head and burning your throat like the stuff generally' sold, after drinking it, one suddenly feels one's feet burning, and the heat spreads over the body. Incidentally, this discussion proves what a wide circulation the Daily News has. In Opunake, a man from Eltham tame up to me and said, "I know that Lieutenant Oakey well. He is one of the straightest men in the Army." In Palmerston a man I have not seen for years said he was watching it with interest, while the first man I spoke to in Hawera referred to it, but the Manaia remark just hits the point: "Life'moves too quickly for Mr. M. ivhen he has to quote an ancient sailorman like Beresford, who never saw a trench." The Y.M.C.A. has solved the difficulty of getting parcels and comforts to our boys at the front, and I hope, Sir, you will, like your Wellington, Wanganui and other contemporaries, reprint their agent's letter, while everything I give now will be either to or through this body. [We are reprinting the article.] I would ask the people who are collecting money for the wounded what they are putting the money in the bank for? That is no good to the poor fellows lying sick or hurt at the front. They will be well treated when they come back. , It is after they are carried out of the trench that some comforts and delicacies are needed, and that's just when they don't get them. So wake up, you secretaries, and get your money away where it will be of immediate benefit, or your subscribers may "turn dog" at so much money lying idle.- am. etc., W. R. WRlOirT. Rahotu, November 8. SHIRKERS. To the Editor. Sir,—l would beg a little space in your valuable paper to just say a few words on the subject of factory hands enlisting. I think they should please themselves, and show that they are men. Why should they consider the farmers? The latter are making grand cheques, and because of that are keeping their sons at home. I know as a positive fact of one family of eight sons and another of six sons fine, strong young men of military age, who are not thinking of enlisting, but instead are milking more cows than -before. If the factory hands go to fight (all honor to them for doing it!) the farmers will send their shirker sons to work the factory. They won't lose their blood-money bonuses, don't anyone worry. They are quite willing for someone else's son (perhaps an only son) to go ami die for them, but they protest against their factory hands going to fight amid fearful hardships, and for small pay, because it upsets their easy profits. .Another way some shirkers have of shirking their plain duty is to get married, often on nothing. T hope when conscription comes they will treat all young men who have married since the war began as single men. The girls are just as bad for marrying them. Tliey can't help knowing that they are helping these men to hide behind their petticoats. They can't honor a man who won't go and fight for them. Thanking you for allowing me this space,—l am, etc., ONE WHO KNOWS. Tariki, November C.