SOLDIERS' LETTERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8201, 26 July 1915, Page 7

SOLDIERS' LETTERS.

(From Our Wellington Correspondent.)

Mr Poland (Ohinenuiri) drew the attention of the Minister of Defence (in the Houso of Representatives) on Friday to the continued, complaints regarding the non-delivery of letters and parcels despatched from New Zealand to the soldiers at the front. He mentioned the case of a man who wrote

from the Dardanelles to say that ho had not received a single letter from home. As a matter of fact, the man's relatives had written often. The Minister of Defence (tho Hon. James Allen) said that every care was being taken to see tho letters and parcels were delivered to the men. Somotimes letters were returned to New Zealand because they were not sufficiently addressed, and the men they were intended for could not be traced by tho officers in Egypt. Ho had not received an answer from Egypt to a suggestion be had made concerning the despatch of two postal officers from New Zealand to assist in the delivery of the soldiers' letters. It was exceedingly difficult to trace the letters that were reported to have gone astray. Mr Jennings (Taumarunui) said that < liis wife had written repeatedly td his sons in" the Main Expeditionary Force. but ho had received a postcard, dated May IS, saying that they bad not received letters from home. •

The Minister said he was informed that a large mail hud been landed at the Dardanelles quite recently. ■ He would like the House to realise, tho difficulties of the position. The New Zealand troops were fighting in a rugged country., under peculiarly arduous conditions, and they were mingled with Australian, Indian, and British units. It was extraordinarily difficult to deliver letters regularly to the men under these conditions. Tlig mails were at the bases:.in Egypt and,'the: .Dardanelles. ■ <

Mr Ell (Ghristchurch South) urged that the Defence Department should send experienced postal officers to Egypt at once. , The Minister of Defence: " AYe have already offered to send two." Mr Jennings: "Send them right away. Don't, wait." .- •, Mr Witty (lliccarton) read a letter describing the case of a mother who had sent parcels and money to her son in the Expeditionary Force. The gifts had not reached him, and the son's letters to his mother, as well as some curios, had also gone astray. The man himself had come home by the Willochra. and was now seriously ill in the Wellington Hospital, but his mother had not been informed by the Defence Department of his arrival or his condition.

The Minister of Defence said the Department had taken very great care to inform the next-of-kin in every case. Possibly the man had been taken ill after leaving the Willochra and getting out of touch with the Department. As regarded tho money, the Defence Department had arranged to transmit money to men at the front and see thnt they got it. If people sent money through otb°r channels'the Department could not bo held responsible.