"A DAY WILL COME"

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 78, 1 April 1916, Page 5

"A DAY WILL COME"

A WORD TO THE MOTHERS OF

- SOLDIERS,

COMEQRTS FOR THE MEN,

"When 1" walked down the streets oE Auckland after returning from the hospitals of Cairo," said .Chaplain-Captain Mac Donald last night in the Town Hall, "and saw the same familiar sights, the latest fashions in dresses, the same display of money and amusement—l said to myself and comrades that these people are not aware that the nation is at war."

There were many hearts in New Zealand, he proceeded, that had been wounded. "But you will pardon me in saying this : there are very few pockets and very few businesses in New Zealand that have yet been touched by the war (Applause.) The war has so far made very little impression, and you have not yet realised what the whole thing means. You are too far from the base of operations, and from the hospitals and the trenches, and the sound of the guns." They did not see the men come back to the hospitals, broken and bruised—many of them not to recover, but to die. He would like to see the people get interested in those men, and learn to make sacrifices for them. Had these soldiers of ours individual quarrels with Turks ""and Germans ? Were they offering themselves up to be slain because of that' Most certainly no! "These boys are fighting for the women and children and for the homes and families of New . Zealand—(applause)—in order that what happened iv Belgium and Poland and Armenia will not be repeated on the - sacred shores of New Zealand. They are laying down their lives that the women of New Zealand can walk the streets and live in their homes in. honour and safety and peace, and that the mothers of New Zealand can pack their little ones into their cots at night and leave the windows open without fear of danger to the little ones; and get up in the morning and breathe God's free air, under a free flag! (Applause.) To do that the New- Zealand boys are dying gladly and willingly, and, as I have often* heard them say, 'proud to do it.' " (Applause.) .^ If he could only take them Jto the graveyards in Gallipoli, he would bid them ia the Scriptural words "take their shoes from off their feet, for it was holy ground." Unless the men and women realised this they would not get interested in the most important "subject of the great European War. (Applause. ) Sometimes the women of New Zealand might think they had no time to make things for the lads; theie might be this or that social or household duty demanding attention. "But it is for your sakes, the sacred mothers of the nation, those men are fighting. Therefore, don't consider any sacrifice too great! Be proud that you are called upon to take part, and don't let a, bundle go away without something in it that your hands have made; for the day will come when you will see the remnant of the men, and the crippled and the blind, return; and I pity your conscience if you can't say, ' I helped to clothe that dear lad when he was in hospital in Egypt." Cancel your social engagement; don't bother about the household duty for a day or two ; let the curtains alone for another week. Send these lads any little thing you can make; let them feel that you remember them and still love them ; for the boy looks eagerly for it, and he will die of a broken heart if you don't, for he is fighting for you."