THE LATE CHAPLAIN-MAJOR McMENAMIN

New Zealand Tablet, 9 August 1917, Page 17

THE LATE CHAPLAIN-MAJOR McMENAMIN

LETTERS OF THANKS. Under date May 26, the following letter of thanks was written by Father McMenamin to Mr. G. GirlingButcher, general secretary of the N.Z. Catholic Federation : "A few days ago I received word from Barclay's Bank, Walton-on-Thames, that £3OO had been placed to the credit of our chaplains' account there. This will be the money that I cabled to Mr. Hoskins for (through Archbishop O'Shea) some short time ago. Many thanks for your promptness in sending it on. The first £l5O had been distributed among our chaplains, and so I cabled for the .£3OO in view of big operations in the near future. After our share in the 1917 offensive is over the money will be needed chiefly for hospital work. During the winter just past we found the money most useful at the front. I gave you an idea in my last letter how it had been spent. "There are four New Zealand hospitals, capable of accommodating some 5000 patients. One hospital, in charge of Lieut.-Colonel O'Neill, is in France, and the others in England. All our chaplains are well. Fathers Barra, Skinner, and O'Neill are here with me, and Fathers Doyle, Richards, Daly, and Bartley are in England. I expect the last-named over soon with our new 4th Brigade. With kindest regards, and many thanks to you and all our generous Catholic people." Writing on March 30 to Miss Kennedy, secretary of the Wellington Catholic Knitting Guild, Father McMenamin expressed his thanks for donations in the following terms: —• "To-day three parcels came to me from you, and I at once distributed the things amongst the soldiers.

Such fine'. socks and other warm woollen things "were most acceptable this cold weather. This has been the coldest winter known in France for thirty years, and it is not yet over. Every pair of those warm socks, whether worn by soldiers in England or in France, has been most welcome on account of the extreme cold of this winter, now happily nearing its end. I am surprised that some of the boys have not replied to the notes that were sometimes in the socks. However, I thank you and your industrious band for all the soldiers at once. Soldiers, for the most part, find it more difficult to write a short formal note of thanks than they do to write a long letter to a mother or a friend.

“I was glad to get those two purificators. I have been wondering for some time how I was going to get my altar linen washed. We are in rather an out-of-the-

way place now, arid it is growing a very lively place, too. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Kennedy,, and tell her that I am keeping fine and strong now, thank God. I have been back at the front nearly three months now, and am as happy as can be with the soldiers. Father Barra is here and keeping well.” The above speaks for itself, and should prove most gratifying to those ladies of the Catholic Knitting Guild who have worked so hard to provide the muchappreciated comforts acknowledged by the late Father McMenamin’s letter.