OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1939, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

WET CANTEENS (To the Editor.) Sir, —I was amused to read in your paper tonight, that, according to a resolution of the Masterton No Licence League, “we are sending our men into military camps to beffrained, etc,” and inter alia, that if a wet canteen is provided that the men’s efficiency, bodily resistance, and morals are going to be wrecked! How lovely! 1 would like to say as a member of the Special Force, having been in camp since September 27. that the No Licence Brigade did not send me or as far as I know, any of the others who are there. We went of own free will. It seems an extraordinary idea that because we did that we are to be treated like a lot of Sunday school kiddies and not allowed our ordinary civilian's privileges, i.e., we cannot be allowed to purchase beer. It also seems strange to think that our morals have to be looked after so well. It would seem that “we desire for our men the cleanest of moral conditions in their training" Well! Well!. I would suppose that one of the morals will be “Thou shalt not kill” —and what are we being trained for? Mr Editor, if we are to be trusted with live ammunition, machine-guns, rifles, big artillery, anti-tank rifles, and all the rest of odds and ends that go to make up a fair size war, surely we are to be trusted with a glass of beer? If we are not it is going to be a poor lookout for the rest of the citizens of this country, including the No Licence League. Wait till you get some “strong opposition expressed by the boys in camp” before you need worry. The wet canteens are almost an established fact and it will be the brightest thing that, has yet happened in the military camps in this country. Yours, etc, 5186