INSULTING LETTERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 246, 28 July 1943, Page 2

INSULTING LETTERS.

SOME SENT TO SOLDIERS. (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 27. A very serious view of the action of some people in writing insulting letters to soldiers serving overseas, but far from the present scenes of conflict, Was taken to-night by the executive of the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic Committee, and on the motion of the chairman, Mr W. G. Hutchison, it Was resolved that the persons concerned be requested to forward to the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) the names of the writers of the letters complained of, with a view to their being offlcially admonished, or prosecuted, if grounds for prosecution could be established. These communications wei’e all received recently by overseas garrison troops who had written acknowledging patriotic gift parcels to the addresses given on the enclosed gift cards, for which privilege the senders pay 2s 6d. “When I read the first press report of a girl expressing disappointment that the parcel had not gone to the Middle East and referring to the men on that station as ‘banana pickers,’ I could not conceive that there was more than one person of such low mentality,” said the chairman; “but now we have been advised of these other cases and I can only assume that some of i these people do not know of the ex-; tremely unpleasant conditions under Which the men in the islands are working and living. The troops are not there of their own choice, and their presence has meant that we have not been troubled in New Zealand. There must be some ulterior motive, something in the nature of fifth column activity.’’ A letter received from an officer was read by Mr Hutchison. Another soldier wrote: “The other day a man j who wrote to the address enclosed in | a parcel received the reply that it was I not intended for the ‘play boys of the Pacific’.” Mr H. Bull said he had been advised of another instance of the division concerned being referred to as the “coco- J nut bombers.”