MR. HOLLAND AND OUR SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 123, 11 February 1918, Page 6

MR. HOLLAND AND OUR SOLDIERS

Sir, —I suppose when a man is trying to become a member of Parliament or member of a city council, he really must think of something that will, as it were, make him seem eligible for the position ho covets. In this particular case Mr. Holland chooses for his theme. "Conscription," and among his remarks re the latter he tells us | "that the wives and children of'soldiers are starving." Why not stretch it a bit more! Fortunately, wo are living in an age when men and women

are not fools, and if tho New Zealand soldiers' dependants are starving on their allowances, where do the British and French soldiers' dependants come in with food much dearer, and pay much lower? There are a certain lot of people that are never satisfied no matter what wages and conditions they receive, and I suppose it pays to agitate. 1 Jiavo two sons, one a soldier for over two years, and another a youth oF 20 just now in camp, and botli were volunteers. I, as a parent, would thank Mr. Holland to leave his paternal interest in soldiers of 20 alone as far as my son is concerned, and I nm sure other parents will not appreciate- his interference. We don't want our sons to be bread and milk sops, a namby-pamby race incapable of looking after themselves. The German youth is under the State, takes all his orders from the State, and I say,_ let your members mind their own business. In conclusion I would ask Mr. Holland to read Joseph Hocking's book "The Path of Glory," and lie will very likely, after reading it, become a war enthusiast straight away, with no time for the question of -wages and pay, but a grim 'determination to do (as many a youth of 20 has been doing for years), namely, "Down the Germans."—l am. etc., A VOTER.