WAR AND SELF-DENIAL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16152, 5 March 1918, Page 5

WAR AND SELF-DENIAL.

TO THE EDITOE OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —Liko Dr. Levinge, I, too, have been vainly oxpecting to see in your correspondence column some comment or Miss Grigg's letter about the allegoc slackness of the New Zealand population in. war work, and now, again, ] have been waiting t-o see tho mattei takon up in answer to Dr. Levinge bj someone more competent than I .among the many New Zealanders who must be feeling uneasily that there is ground for the accusation, in spite of the big subscription lists filled in this country, especially in the beginning of the war. 1 have lately met one of our nurses on furlough from Home, where she had served on hospital transport and at W alton-on-Thames, and during her leaves visited much about England and in London, and she says that she has felt most painfully, ever since landing, tho New Zealand" atmosphere of "detachment" from the one object of "winning the war," which seemed to animate almost literally every man and woman whom sho met in England, and that returned soldiers whom she ha? talked with spoke despondently of the same impression. Everyone, they say, is think in cr first of his or her usual- interests . and avocations, and of the wai and what they can. do for it only as s side issue, even though in many case; their dearest are offering their lives ii it. And how could I contradict her, o the poor soldiers, when 1 thought of th race meetings, with their thousands o pounds' worth of motors in attendance and the huge sums gambled by al classes through the totalisator, and thi assertions by shopkeepers thai; neve; have they had better'trade than during the war, especially in all luxuries ? Oui children in days of peace may well shame us by asking each father and mother: "What did you do to help tc win in the great war?" It needs some clarion cry to rouse ns, since even the sight of the poor wounded in our streets is" not enough; and then it will need energy and organisation, and every art of emulation and advertisement to carry out the schemes decided on, so that every individual may put all his or her strength into the cause of victory, laying aside till that is won all othor interests. An article on the Association for "War Self-Denial in the United States appeared in the "Daily Mail" some time in December last, whieh showed how the Americans, with as little necessity for self-denial as we, have determined from the first to make real sacrifices to help the belligerents. Might not some such movement be started here —something to bring home to everyone that every pound of food and penny of money saved can be made tc help to end the war, and therefore to save the lives of hundreds of our men ? People sigh over the privations of their

friends at Home, and the sufferings of the soldiers, but say that they do notsoo how they can help them beyond some Red Cross work and subscriptions from their superfluity.—Yours, etc BIUTOiW