LETTERS TO A SOLDIER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1943, Page 3

LETTERS TO A SOLDIER

Dear Jack,—Your remarks about the election interested me a lot. It does seem a pity to be having an election just now, but all the same it will be a good thing to clear the air, and if the National Party is elected, that nonparty wartime Government which you speak of, like they have in England, may perhaps come into being. Understand S. G. Holland has given an undertaking that, if elected, the first thing he would do would be to form a Government composed of the best men in the House, no matter what party they belonged to. I am definitely impressed with Holland, as he is a vigorous type of manno frills, but plenty of common sense, and also with a sense of humour, I should say. As it happens, I remember him as a young lieutenant in the last war. He was the commanding officer of the reinforcement I went away in. If we had been able to look ahead a few years, we might have recognised him as a possible future Prime Minister. However, there was a lot that the future concealed from us in those days. Who could have imagined, for example, that—but perhaps I’d better not say it, or I might have the censor on my tracks!

Well, lad, I’m sorry you didn’t draw the right marble to come back with the furlough troops, but it looks as if it may not be long now. I saw the North v South game the other day—a great match, but I couldn’t help thinking of the last game and the ones who won’t come back. The next big excitement for us will be the election. We’ll try to see that when you come back this will still be a worth-while country for a young chap to start out in.—Yours ever, Dad.—Advt.