AH OPEN LETTER.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 35, 12 November 1920, Page 6

AH OPEN LETTER.

TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW ZEALAND. The £6;OCO.O(X) 5i per cent. Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Loan, as its name implies, is intended to supply the remaining funds required for repatriation and -soldier settlement purposes, and will, it is confidently expected, suffice to meet our obligations in connection with the late war to the men who so nobly responded to the call of duty in the unprecedented crisis that then arose, and who on the field of action upheld the honour and dignity of New Zealand while defending the threatened libe-rties and free citizenship of the State against an unscrupulous foe pledged to its undoing. It is not necessary for me to stress the point that subscriptions to this loan (the last of the war series) should be made as freely and spontaneously as possible even if in the subscription sacrifices are entailed. The men for whose henefit it is being raised did not hcsitate when the call for sacrifices came to them, and it is to their ready response and action in the time of national peril that we owe the preservation of our homes and liberties today. They took their lives in their hands. Many of them returned crippled and otherwise disabled from the war, while more than 16,000 made the supreme sacrifice, and are numbered with our "glorious dead whose name liveth for ever" and whose example silently .appeal to us that while we should cherisii their memories and care for their dependents we should not overlook the claims of their fellows, who, having in the order of Providence, survived the fiery ordeal of battle, have returned to us, and have to be resettled in civilian life. The loan itself is of the reproductive order, and eventually every penny of the many subseribed will be returned to the State. It is offered on liberal terms, the security is good, the vvhole credit of the State is at its back, and the duty of finding the money is incumbent upon ns. The men in whose interests it is being raised are worthy of all the assistan.ee we' can give them, and while subscription has been made compulsory, I feel sure it will not be necessary to enforce the penalising clauses of the Act which authorises its flotation. We want a quick response in the shortest possible time. I, therefore, earnestly commend the appeal which is now being made to you, and trust that every citiz'en in New Zealand whose circumstances permit will not fail to respond to the call of duty in the matter. (Signed) W. F. MASSEY.