THE MAIN BODY MEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 76, 22 December 1917, Page 7

THE MAIN BODY MEN

Sir, —I • would like to , know, if the Government have quite abandoned the idon proposed sonio time ago of granting six montliß' furlough to the Main Body men or those who volunteered in 1914. If so, I consider it a crying shame and gross injustice that these men, or what arc left of them, should, after three years' lighting, still be kept, at it. To keep them in the firing line any longer I think most people Trill agree is positive cruelty. Letters received from these »a show how grievously disappointed they were when they received the news that they were not to get the proposed furlough. "When volunteering in 1914 none of tliesp men had any idea that the war would last over three years. Whattheso men have gone through during that period, sleeping in muddy trenches or on the sandy desert, the unceasing sound of gnus, the dread of being shelled, and the many other horrors of the battlefield, is enoiight to drive men out of their minds. Their nerves are shattered and many of them will never again he fit to resume the ordinal';? occupation of the lives they were acoustomcd to. We seem to have moro reinforcements than we know what to do with. Let some of them take the plane of the 1914 men and give the welMeservcd rest they are. justly entitled to. I feci rather sore on this matter. Mv only two so!'.~> volunteered ; one was killed'in France; the other has foufrht in-Egypt, Gallipoli, France, and back in Egypt—been twice wounded. Is a,man who has gone through this hell for three years not entitled to a sp"U? Or is he to be kept in'the firing line until he f is jv-iiiorl out. as many of our best men have .been lately. ;I think the Government should have some consideration for the parents of these 1914 men. and (rive them a chance of seeing them once mor». Hoping some abler pen than mine will take the matter up. mid W and get justice done to the Main Boclv heroes who h«ve done their bit in this hellish war.—l am, etc.. FATHER OF A SOLDIER.