Exclusive Picture

"Truth's" exclusive photograph, with all its stark, pitiable reality m the portrayal of those poor, puzzling j eyes, wondering always — wondering as only animals wonder, without full realization — crashed into their understanding. And all this at a time when the town of Stratford— that flourishing little district under the might and majesty of Mount Egmont — was celebrating its fifty years of progress with a. blaze of color, bands and a whirl of merry life and laughter. Now the jubilee celebrations will have a significance all their own. To the McQuays, the great question that has now arisen is whether the reunion of the mother and her long-lost son will bring back the memory of the unfortunate soldier. It is considered that there is hope of his return to normality and certainly no stone will be left unturned to achieve this end. It was strangely ironical that only a few days before the confirmation of his identity, McQuay's mother and sister, who are nurses well-known m the district, attended the screening of the famous war t picture, "What Price Glory?" "Did my poor George have to go through all that?" asked the mother of her daughter when the tragic realism of the picture struck harshly into her conscience. The film unnerved her — opened up that enigma which had been exercising her mind for thirteen years. "No," she said, "our George is dead." But she knows now that her boy not only lives, but stands a good chance of having the great hiatus m his mind removed by the links of a full and complete comprehension, so that he will live again m mind as well as body. Exclusive photographs published m this issue of "N.Z. Truth" tell a great deal of the remarkable story. In one picture the pre-war civilian clothes, the clean, almost dapper, figure, well thought of by all his companions; the other reproduction merely a piece of human flotsam, peering curiously at the photographer, wondering, trying to recall his identity and the Avhy and wherefore of things. McQuay's sister instantly recognized him from "Truth's" picture, although both mother and daughter were astounded — if not aghast — at the bewildering transformation.