THE HORRORS OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1916, Page 2

THE HORRORS OF WAR.

A WORD TO SLACKERS. The son of Canon T. A. Hamilton, of Fendalton (a Main Body man), writing under date June 17 from "Somewhere in France," says that it has rained nearly all the week, and the horse-lines are inches deep in mud. "We have to put on all the warm clothing we have, and we ask ourselves if this is summer what on'earth is the winter like! . . . You talk of Anzac Day and how the people seem to have already forgotten. Good Heavens! the people of New Zealand have not the faintest notion what war is like. If they could only see the horrors of it; if they could only see civilised women and children blown to smithereens iike I have, why, there wouldn't be a man left in New Zealand who could carry a rifle. These poor people you are not helping at all are yet doing their share. They have all lost husbands and brothers everyone, and yet they are fighting still. If you could only witness the fear in which they hold the Germans—many have seen atrocious things, and yet we read in Now Zealand papers that the recruits are not coming up fast enough. "Why don't the women do their bit? Let them do without the slackers to play around with, and make them do their bit. Every weekly paper that comes has pictures in it of plenty of men standing about amongst the women at some beastly carnival or other. Oh, it makes a fellow sick when over here the best are getting smashed. Strafe them all! "Last Sunday I Went to Holy Communion in a barn along the road. There were only two of us, and it was wonderfully quiet and peaceful, just like the old church at home, only now and then the boom of guns would rattle the windows. This is the first service I've been able to go to in France. "I can't tell you the news, but I'm all right All's well, and wo arc making a success of the job."