New Zealanders in England.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15605, 1 June 1916, Page 6

New Zealanders in England.

We haro very much pleasure in acceding to tho request made by I>r. Eleanor Baker* in a letter which appears in another column, asking us to open a list for subscriptions t Q the hostel which tho New Zealand War Contingent Association is about to establish for the benefit of New Zealanders on furlough from France. Tho New Zealand War Contingent Association, which is composed of Xew Zealanders resident in England, with the High Commissioner as President, has done admirable work in looking after the sick and wounded soldiers sent Home from Egypt, and in other ways. Its latest proposal to establish a hostel in which New Zealand soldiers who havo no friends to go to when on furlough from tho front may find a temporary home, is an admirable idea which deserves the most generous support from all who wish well to our soldier boys fighting the battle of the Empire. Thousands of New Zealanders arc already in the trenches in France and Flanders; thousands more arepto follow. From time to time when they arc spent and worn with the hardships of war, their ncr\-es shaken by its horrors, they are allowed a few days' rest in England to recuperate. For those without friends this holiday will be a mockery or worse! Nowhere in the worid does a stranger without friends feel moro lonely than in the crowded streets of London; nowhere are there worse temptations for tho lonely one thrown upon his own resources. Considering what our soldiers have done and arc doing for us, there is not one of our readers, -vve feel sure, who would | not welcome one or moro of them into his own house if he were in England, j so that these New Zealand lads, although far from homo should not feel themselves without a friend. In the proposed hostel they will meet their I mates, and they will be looked after by I their own countrymen and country-'

women, who will be able to give them news of their island home, and, so to speak, brace them up with something like a reviving eurrcnt of the wholesome ocean brcozes which sweep across their native land. It may not altogether remove the feeling cf home-sickness which many of them may experience, but it will cheer them up. and make them fee] thao although far away, they •ire not forgotten by those they have left behind. >.vach a hostel cannot be started and kept going without money —more money than those colonists who are in England can be expected to provide. "Wo hope, therefore, that our readers, ever generous in the support of good works, especially those of. a patriotic nature?, will lend a helping hand in the admirable enterprise. "We shall be pleased to receive and acknowledge any donations.