MAIN BODY MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1917, Page 6

MAIN BODY MEN.

NEW ZEALAND'S- VETERANS. ' AN APPEAL FOR CONSIDERATION. (From Our Own Correspondent) Wellington April 5. "I am sorry to see that the Government has consented to the formation of an additional New Zealand Infantry Brigade at the front, because I believe that a better use could be made jo f accumulated reinforcements," said a returned soldier to a reporter yesterday. "Does anybody ever give a thought to the Main Body men, who fought through Gallipoli, faced the Germans on the Somme last year and are still within sound of the guns, with hearts weary for a holiday amid familiar scenes and friendly faces? There are hundreds of those fellows, who have 'stuck it' right through, and if we have a surplus of reinforcements, why not give them a real spell, even a trip' back to New Zealand'; "I know how the Main Body men feci because I have been with them. Lots of them are very tired—mentally tired. They would wish to be in it when the war ends, and if the finish is coming this year my suggestion is no good. But if the war is not going to end this year, then New Zealand ought to say to every man who has had say two years active service: 'Come home for a spell, and we will send a fresh man to take your place.' "I remember reading a letter from one of those veterans last year. He had been right through Gallipoli campaign, except for a brief spell in the hospital. Then he went to France"with the New Zealand Division and fought there. This is what lie wrote:— "I seem fit enough and I am glad to be on the job, but I would dearly like a rest from it all just a rest from the strain and the effort. I never knew what nerves were before; now I am nervy and just a bit depressed. , . I wonder if some of the chaps I used to know in the good old days in New Zealand are coming along to take our places for a while." "Well, nobody took his place. He stayed at the work in spite of the weariness, and he was killed in action after two years' hard service. It seema to me that man ought to have had his holiday, and I wish New Zealand would realise that there are lots more like that with the New Zealand Forces at the present time. They have done more than their share already