SOLDIER COMFORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 6

SOLDIER COMFORTS.

Before long the first echelon of the Dominion's Expeditionary Force will

begin its long trek to the battlef ront.

The patriotic members of that force will have little warning of the time

of their departure; the public, for

the safety of the men, will have aone at all. They will step quietly away,

without shrill of the fife or beat of

drum, and life, for those left behind, will go on much as before. But not

for the troops. They will be living under active service conditions, in which stern necessity dictates the limits of comfort and recreation which can be provided for them. Those limits can only be extended by the full realisation of the public I generally of the need for very much more than the army regulations provide. Extra comforts make their very difficult lot much more tolerable, th«y offer an escape from the monotony of a life in which every minute is regulated, and they provide those extra dietary changes which mean so much to men whose food supplies, good though they may be, are necessarily limited in variety. On the ships and in the camp large supplies of sporting gear will be essential to the well-being of the men; to lift them above the boredom of planned days in restricted quarters, and to keep them physically fit for the arduous days ahead. The Government was in some degree responsible, through its initial delays, for checking the flow of funds, and it should now make the position thoroughly clear to the public, especially as heavy taxation limits the liberality of the average

giver. A statement should be made of the amount now available, of the requirements from month to month, us nearly as they can be estimated, and of the objects upon which the money is to be spent. ' The public generally should remember the great sacrifice which the men of | the Expeditionary Force are making for them and, reviving a slogan of the last war, should "give till it hurts."