LONELY SOLDIERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 January 1941, Page 8

LONELY SOLDIERS

o READY RESPONSE BY PUBLIC. j 1 TO SEND LETTERS OR PARCELS. | I . — [ Well over 100 letters have been re-1 [ceived by the National Patriotic Fund) | Board from people all over the coun-l i try wanting the name of one of the! ‘ •■‘lonely soldiers" serving with the I [New Zealand Expeditionary Force in j England, mention of whom was made •I. . , , , . . ■ lin a report received at the beginning; .'of this month by the National Patriotic I .Fund Board from’its overseas commis-i [sioner, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. F. ■ j Waite. D. 5.0., M.L.C. The report staled that there were. .; eleven men whom the padres consid-, cred did not get letters or parcels ad-I 'dressed to them personally and who. might rightly be classed as "lonely sol- j ! diers." The announcement was made; i that the National Patriotic Fund] Board would make available the names I .of these, men to people willing to write j .to the men and thereby supplement ! I the service rendered to the lighting I I forces in general by the National Pal-| riolic Fund Board. It was not antici-1 paled, however, that there would be; such an overwhelming response. j With two or three exceptions, the | . letters are from women and girls, and [ ' a strong patriotic note is struck in [ 'many of them. They provide further[ i evidence of the keen interest taken' j by the womenfolk of the Dominion in I ! the fighting forces and their desire! ito ilo all they can to promote their i well being. As, however, the board has the j names of only eleven "lonely soldiers," 'it has not been thought advisable to .make them available to all the 100-odd [ 'applicants. If each were given ai I name, the "lonely soldiers" would be [ .swamped with parcels and letters. This I

; would neither be fair to their eol-i ileagues nor to the men themselves, for ; it would involve them in considerable I ! correspondence, which they would be j I likely to find difficult and costly to un-i dortake. Accordingly, the intention is to allot j one ntitne to pairs of applicants, a procedure which will mean that only 22 of the applicants will receive names. Il is possible, however, that other names ,;f genuine "lonely sokkers" will be received later from the board’s representatives, in which case further allocations will be made. In view of the steps taken by the board to meet the case of the genuine I "hmcly soldier" and the willingness of ; the women and girls of the Dominion : to give all the help they can, there I . should soon not be a man in this rate- j gory in the Now Zealand forces over-1