USING SOLDIERS FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 50, 27 February 1918, Page 7

USING SOLDIERS FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

Soldiers and votes were the subject of brief reference by Sir Joseph Ward last night. "As a resident of the country," he said, "I feel almost ashamed'of some cf the people who are trying to use the 6oldiers for political purposes. We all want to help the soldiers. Every man .of every political caste in this country, and every woman," wants \o help the soldiers,, and nothing we can do is too much for them. The hospital arrangements in ! Franco and England, and the supply of j the most skilled men at every point of the fighting front, the hospitals provided from end to end of New Zealand-^ are these not something? Is there anything the Government, can do that it is not doing? 1' Was it fair to select a few men from the hundred thousand who had gone and judge the Government by them? "One. of the worst facts at this time of crisis in my opinion—and it ought to be stopped by the working men—is that you see men getting up on the platform in this country day after day, and~ pulling at the hearts of the women who have their near and dear ones in distant countries, and creating a feeling of doubt in their minds."