CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 156, 2 July 1917, Page 2

CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

" Interested writes about the proposal to build a hostel for returned soldiers. Our correspondent sngests that the old V.M.C.A. buildings or the house in ("lilies Park could be utilised. - Passenger" writes: -"Now that the one side of the central wharf is completed, could not the Harbour Board 'give a berth to the s.s. Manaia so that passengers would not have to go down half-nay of the King's wharf.'" " 8.D.W." puts in a pica for Denmark in the war settlement. Surely she should get back the territory taken from her by Prussia and .Austria. It was through tiiis territory that the Kiel Canal was cut. Air. A. TI. fititterwortli. commenting on Mr. .1. M. Steele's letter on British tn.'l Herman Socialists, calls attention to the work done by Mr. Robert Blatohfortl, the well-known English Socialist, in trying to rouse the British nation to a sense of the German peril. " Equal Sacrifice " comments on a recent appeal on behalf of a preacher, and says that it is unfair to reopen one case and say nothing of others. He considers that before the Second Division is called on all lit preachers and religious teachers should be sent to the front. " Advance " says it is surprising that there should be even a small section of the people who fail to appreciate Mr. K. 11. Abbott's splendid gift to his fellow citizens, but he may rest assured that the great, majority arc deeply grateful and appreciative, and when the war is over there will be vast numbers of our boys going to Auckland's only lake to enjoy sports, and motoring round it." Mrs. K. Gibson draws attention to the report of a maintenance case in the Police Court, in which the mother claimed the custody of a. two-year-old child. In giving judgment. Mr. Kettle is reported as having said that th" father had "the right to custody." Subsequently, in making an order for main- I tcnancc. he said he would make no order as to custody, but advised the defendant to " allow " the child to remain with its mother "for the present." Upon this. Mrs. Gibson remarks: "The people of New Zealand pride upon their laws. but. if the judgment in this case is correct, then 'hat law is n abomination. To deny a woman who has risked her life to bring a child into the world her indisputable right to the care and companionship of that child, and give the father a prior claim. ,s an offence against nature. One can only wonder how much longer our women will stand laws of this kind.'' Mr. ■!. Thornes writes strongly advocating reprisals upon Germany, in retaliation for their raids on English open towns. lie says:—- If it is definitely made clear that reprisals would be used so long as the Germans continued warfare in direct violence 1.1 HI humanity, and would cca.-c when they returned to legitimate warfare-, that the reprisals were deemed a .-lent necessity, used only as a preventive of further crime by the Germans, then the onus of the deaths of Herman women and children would lie with the German Government. !>•! them cease attacks on British open towns, hospital ships and prisoners of v.ar ; let the Kaiser withdraw his damnable order to shew no mercy on the British: and let the prisoners in Germany be treated humanely, and reprisals would cease. Anyhow, reprisals arc surely worth trying, because the failure to use reprisals results in the continuance of air raids on England: in the continued slavery of French and Belgian civilians, in the employment of British prisoners in the war /one. and in the continual inhuman treatment of the same, it has encouraged the devilish malignity of the German Kaiser till he proclaims to the German nation that "They must shew no mercy on the British.' . . How long will the Government be content to let the Germans make the lives of the British in Germany Hell on Earth? The answer to these question is also the answer to the question. When will the British adopt reprisals resolutely, and on a scale big enough to stop thee outrages on humanity Mr. Thornes

o-verlooks one important fact, among others, that if the British had adopted Germany's barbarous methods of warfare, America to-day would not be fighting on the side of the Allies. It is surely taking a very mild view of the brutalit'v of the military despotism which dominates Germany to suppose that their diabolical methods would be modified in the smallest degree because a Tew thousands of German women and children were killed by British bomhs or a fewchurches destroyed. Even British military measures have not been influenced by German air raids, except in this respect that they have made the great masses of the people more determined to prosecute the war with increasing vigour until decisive victory is achieved and the enemy its compelled to sue for terms.