A QUERY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16208, 10 May 1918, Page 8

A QUERY.

TO THE EDITOR OT "THE TRESS."

Sir, —Will you kindly tell me what men, who have been examined by the Military Medical Board, mean when they afterwards say "they've been chucked out." Do they mean accepted or turned down? Trusting you will enlighten me, —Yours, ets., NOT UP IN SLANG.

May Bth. 'We should say it means thov have been "turned down."—Ed. "The Press."]

SECOND DIVISION AND EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE. TO the editor of "the peiss."

S' r r —The daily papers of the past I few days have contained reports of ' meetings, and also letters, some of > which are arnusing and some saddening. Among the first I would nlace the reports of women's meetings in the Choral and Trade Unions' Halls. These afford a certain amount of light and diverting reading, and there I fear their utility ends. Other reports and , letters, however, make one sad, for ! they deal with, the men of the Second I Division, ana tell how a large body J of honoured and loyal men may be tra- ! doced and brought into disrepute by the wild and disloyal words and actions j of an irresponsible minority, composed I of cranks of various shades, who are I ready to sell their country for a mess of jwttage of such a quality as the Kaiser may deign to prepare for them. Of tho main question in dispute be(tween the Second Division and* the Crovernment, I have little to say: certainly the wives and children should not be allowed to want, and if the present allowance is insufficient, then let nine shillings be added to the first guinea, making it 30s. This would brinn - the total allowance for a soldier's wife Without children to £2 -lis, sorelv a fair provision for most cases. That many men are leaving good incomes and breaking jip well-to-do homes we well ! know, and great is the sacrifice. 'Hence i probably arises the cry for "equality of sacrifice.'' How can we have "equality of sacrifice,'' either individually or financially? An only eon goes to the war, and is killed. His mother has Jo£t lier all. Four brothers enlist, .three are killed, one returns. Three times the mother's heart has sufFered the agony caused by the loss of a loved I £on, yet she has still one left to comfort her declining years. Where is the equality of sacrifice? As with the individual, so with financial positions—all sacrifice cannot be equal. Let u3 leave all this wrangling and disputing, and send our Second "Division men away comforted by the knowledge that tho people of this Dominion will not allow their loved ones t<* want anything necessary for their welfare. This, I feel assured, is all that is really asked by all loyal men and women of tho Scrond Division.—Yours, etc., W. MILES.