WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 134, 3 December 1915, Page 8

WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —There is much being said and written, without discrimination as to in- . dividual circumstances, of the duty of single men to enlist and do their duty to their country. Those who are the bitterest in their remarks are men who are immune from any possibility of having to bear arms. Let me take a typical case: A few nights ago, Mr. J. G. W. J Aitken made the very wide and stinging remark that the -men who were left to enlist now were not the young fellows | likely to attend technical schools—thai class had all gone, and the men who remained eligible for service were those usually found hanging round street corners. Now how completely circumstances can alter cases For instance, if Mr. Aitken were a, poor man, sixty-seven years of age, a cripple, debarred totally by reason of his infirmity from earning any money to speak of (because his infirmity crippled him in his profession); and if he had one daughter who devoted her life to looking after him, and one son unmarried, who was responsible for his and his daughter's subsistence if that were Mr. Aitken's case, would he taJk so lightly of single men, generally, in public. Yet that in detail is my case, with other unfortunate circumstances added to it that make it still more difficult to go. And yet I am included in Mr. Aitken's category. Again, if I go it will take every penny of my pay, even provided I get a noncomship, to keep the two dependent upon me from actual want, and if I come back I shall have to make a new start in life, virtually without a penny. I may say that I am going, and I am facing this prospect. But I would can. tion men who live in comfort, who talk glibly of another man's duty, to put themselves in that man's place first, honestly and squarely; and perhaps they will then realise that many a younij man spends many a night in Getlisem.in^ in coming to a decision as to the greater of two duties. I need not tell Mr. Aitken that the easier duty is to go. But I would say that there are hundred* of men in the city to-day who are in circumstances similax to mine, and who are not of the street-corner-lounger type. They are men whom I would rather fight with than any who have yet gone. There is the case also of the young man in a family of three or four boys who has recognised his duty financially more than the others to his parente or sisters—for all respectable families are not well, even comfortably, off Because of his action he, like "his brothers, has not ret been able to get married, though perhaps engaged. Yet society lightly calls him "shirker" if he doe* not go, and the more selfish brothers, in married security, need fear no call of duty. These things I recognise must be, but I point them out with the object of suggesting to the armchair patriots (who also, I suppose, must be) not to let their remarks fall so generally and so glibly. J Let me say bhis to those who talk of a single man's duty: Are they prepared to keep the salary of the single man in their employ up to full virile he is away (or until he falls), so that when he returns he may have the means to be able to make a decent start again? Are they prepared to divest themselves of all their surplus income, retaining only sufficient to live without luxury, and' only as necessity requires, during the war and devote what they nut aside to" providing for the future comfort of the dependents of those who fall, or for the permanently crippled men who return, under a system that could be devised by the Government? Unless they are prepared to do tins their patriotism is merest hypocrisy and humbug, and they have no right to call upon any man, even a street lounger, or a racecourse habitue, or a mule, to give up his life—which is greater than all riches.

I venture to prophesy that out of the army of thousands of men who have gone, and are going from this country to the trenches, there will arise many when they return, who will demand on the political platform, and in the Houst of Representatives itself, a greater equality of sacrifice in the burden of this war than has vet been suggested in New Zealand. To me there is nothing surer than this. The term "shirker" will then, perhaps, be differently used. —I am, etc., A SINGLE MAN. 2nd December. 1915.

It is understood that it is probable arrangements will be made in connection with the Samoan forces to give Col. Logan a short holiday. In the Supreme Court to-day, his Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Kobert Stout), on the motion of Mr. 0. C. Mazengarb, entered up judgment for plaintiff in the action A. W. Brailsford versus Walter A. Cathro, for the sum of £95 14s 5d and costs. Messrs. W. H. George, member of the National Council of the V.M.C.A., and J. Jameson, chairman of the coun■cil, are leaving shortly for Egypt to assist with the V.M.C.A. work" there among the New Zealand soldiers. Following are the umpires for tho seiuor cricket matches to-morrow ■ University v. East, Messrs. M'Kenzie and Yeomans ; North v. Central. Messrs. Webb and Varney; Trentham v. Old Boys, Messrs. Bock and Gardiner; Hutt v. Petone, Me6srs. Rodger and Pickering. Tenders are invited for the supply of personal equipment for the Expeditionary Forces.