OUR BOYS OF NINETEEN

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 67, 17 September 1917, Page 9

OUR BOYS OF NINETEEN

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Why all this'talk against taking the 19-year-old boys' Why, sir, the majority of them are' as capable as men. of mature age. Look at them on a football ground. Let me give you, this fact:.! spent my 18th birthday in the Crimea, and had been there some .months prior to tha-t date, and through „ tho worst months of winter, and I tell you I felt quite "a man,: and had to. dp a man's work.. Some may say: "Ah! but the. Crimea was only a 'picnic' compared to the present war." Granted, but there was plenty of work, and the -winters then were much the same as now; and the feeding of thevmen —oh, so different, ,to,,the way the ; , Tommies fare now. ._ Sureiy, sir, there ought to.be no objection to joining at -19. Then comes the training, and by. the time they, had to go, they ■srould.be well, over 19, and as hard as nails,'and the' Huns would, have a very rough time-of it wheivthey met them. Many are afraid that, if they will not be taken!now,, .they will .have: ,no, chance :.wliatey«r,:-of : -.-rtakittgi a ..hand in the big game.—l am, etc., . . 15th■September. A VETERAN." .