A NEW ZEALAND GIRL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1915, Page 6

A NEW ZEALAND GIRL.

OFFERS TO FIGHT IN THE TRANCHES. The example of at least one New Zealand girl who wishes most anxiously to serve her King and country in the trenches should be a valuable stimulus ! to the young single men who are still studiously avoiding the recruiting office. In the course of a letter to the Minister of Defence, the gallant young demoiselle writes: — "I have been intending for a good while to write to you on this very serious subject. lam very anxious to know whether I and others can go to the war and fight in the trenches, and I am positive we would not disgrace our country. If only you would give the girls a chance, what a name little New Zealand would ge,t—sending their girls to fight! People would say we were mad, but we would soon prove our worth and put those admirable shirkers in the shade." She suggests taking a suitable number of country girls and putting them through military training of a severe kind. There would be good results. She herself was a big girl, twenty years old, weighing ten stone, and not afraid of anything; could ride almost anything, and had done a little shooting. One brother was away at the front and another was going in the Ninth Reinforcement?. Slip pleaded for a chance, and threatened to pester the. Minister unless it was given her. She had intended getting a healthy young fellow pass the doctor, and then go herself in his name—and she would yet, if not allowed to go! ''Mother is quite agreeable, and tells me every day she wishes she could send me. . . . T would I go for nothing a day—l would do that much for dear old New Zealand."

The Minister sent a sympathetic reply, appreciating the splendid spirit prompting the girl, but saying the regulations were against her. He also didn't want their only remaining privilege to pass awav from our young men—that of fighting for the women and children of the Empire.