TERRITORIAL ASSOCIATION OF CANTERBURY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22592, 23 December 1938, Page 13

TERRITORIAL ASSOCIATION OF CANTERBURY

TO TBB EDITOR OF TBS PRESS Sir, —I read with great interest the report published in your paper of the meeting convened by his Worship the Mayor on Tuesday afternoon in connexion with the Territorial Association of Canterbury. I attended this meeting, and to my mind one sentence of Colonel Hurst’s remarks was worthy of quotation in your paper. Unfortunately, it was omitted from your report of the proceedings. but I should like to repeat the remarks of Colonel Hurst in this letter, which I hope will - be published in your columns. He asked the youth of Canterbury whether they would prefer to be “a piker or a private, a coward or a corporal, a shirker or a sergeant, a loafer or a lieutenant.” To my mind this is a question that every young New Zealander should ask himself to-day. Shall we leave it to the other fellow to defend our homes and families? Shall we leave it to the returned soldiers who have already fought a war? To-day the Returned Soldiers' Association is canvassing its members between the ages of 40 and 50 years, asking that they enroll at the Defence Office to form a National Military Reserve. Obviously, the reason for this is that the youth of New Zealand have aia&:-«»roTla<l in- ttoa iewittoirtol Jo—An.

sufficient numbers to defend their country. God help New Zealand. — Yours, etc.. 4/27 A. December 22. 1938.