WAR MEMORIAL COLUMN FUND.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 18

WAR MEMORIAL COLUMN FUND.

TO THE EDITO* 0» THE PRESS. gj^—j have read with considerable interest the correspondence appearing in your columns regarding the above. I have considerable sympathy with those who, owing to the present serious depression, would like to see the money already subscribed for the column diverted to the relief of returned men. I would like to suggest that the erection of the column be gone on with, and, so far as possible, only returned men be employed in the work. I am assuming that there is •uflicient skilled labour among them available for the purpose. This would afford relief to a number of men, and bo practically an everlasting tribute to the glorious dead, and an incentive to subsequent generations to emulate them in loyalty to King and country, at all costs, and at all timeß.—Yours, etc., G. W. HOLLAND. Au~uet 11th, 1932. to rax jjdhob or the press Sir.—Your correspond eut, "Another Subscriber,'' is cvideutly perturbed at '•ho suggestion of the returned soldiers regarding the memorial column. If he bad read the newspapers he would have *ecn that any comment on the matter by tho Returned Soldiers' Association I had been mado with reservations and was, Merely an expression of opinion. Itfitumed soldiers are by no means scl.iieb, or avaricious. Monuments g«v-

crned by circumstances have their limitations and any sane individual must admit that to erect a monument iourteen years after the cessation or hostilities, when Christchurch has already done its duty in that respect, is entirely unnecessary and unreasonable. The Bridge of Remembrance was accepted unanimously by the people of Christchurch as tlio war memorial. With all due respect"to the dead, it is indeed selfish to erect this memorial when so many hundreds of soldiers are to-dav in Christchurcli suu'ering dire hardship brought about in the main not only through depression but by the reaction of war services. If legal proceeding is required to divert the money from its original use, it could lie adopted without delay, and the subscribers to this fund, if they only knew the hardships many returned men are labouring under, would certainly approve. Looking at this noble pile in the .Square will not bring men back to health nor fill their stomachs, but a little financial assistance certainly would. —Yours, etc., ZEITOTJN.

August 11th, 1932