RACING WHILE AT WAR.

Bruce Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 17 September 1917, Page 3

RACING WHILE AT WAR.

GENERAL RUSSELL'S VIEWS. IS THERE TIME FOKJ IT? The following is an extract from a letter recently received by Mr Percival Wither by, of Napier, from General llussell on tho subject of racing. It will be seen that the GeneraPs views, based on the necessity of maintaining the development and efficiency of the State in war time, and expressed in a broad-minded spirit, which should do much to clarify the controversy as to whether racing should continue, now, or cease, the matter being one of public interest. Mr Witherby sought, and has obtained/ tho general's consent to the publication of an extract in full. June 10, 1917. You ask my views on racing. Personally, I can see no objection to racing or to people enjoying themselves, because we are fighting here. Let us ! rather go about life in a cheerful spirit and not with gloomy faces. I am afraid though, there will bo too many who through personal grief will not want to join in much festivities, but have you tho men and time for racing? I can hardly believe it. Here one sees, and because it is in a restricted area and very thorough the destruction war makes in a country. The true area affected by actual destruction as the result of shell-fire 'and trench-digging is, after all, very small, a mere nothing, a thin pencil line drawn on the map, with here and there a town, but what 1 think is not realised is the steady encroachment of Nature in a thousand ways. All over Europe weeds are growing and increasing everywhere. 1 speak of what I have seen. The roads are deteriorating, except, perhaps, in the war zone. Drains are getting choked and the land impoverished for want of manure and efficient tillage. Even the sea, as I have noticed in seaside places, has been encroaching on tho fronts. Of a truth Europe is eating her capital. Maintenance goes largely by the board for want of labor, and is it not the same, though perhaps in a lesser degree, in New Zealand ? For instance, are your roads, etc. ,etc, being maintained, let alone extended and improved? If not there can be no timo for all that racing entails. Every single man should be° doing his utmost for the common good, and if there is essential work to be done, every stable boy who is employed at racing is in the wrong place. This war is not going to last for ever, and we are going to race again for sure. All work and no play is a poor life, but just at present wo have got to work. Yours sincerely. A. H. RUSSELL.