THE MAIN BODY

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 81, 2 October 1918, Page 4

THE MAIN BODY

TO TUB EDITOR;

Sir, —You have given a pretty good innings to various correspondents on one side of this matter, so perhaps you will be good enough to • grant .me the oppor-tunity-of. saying a little for the other side. Ido nob wish 1; to "enter into a discussion as to whether; soldiers' wives should be brought out at present or not, • as the Defence Minister probably can be trusted. • to. know his own business . best, I' would be unconcerned if it did not appear strongly to me that your* correspondents are indirectly-making .use of your -columns, to show bitterness at the audacity of our boys in marrying English girls. Such terms as "these strangers" , and "these wives" leave a nasty taste in the mouth. >l I wonder how the Auckland mothers would like to be comforted with the knowledge that their sons were likely to be treated as strangers, in the event of their being sent to hospital in England. Let them ask any returned man if he was treated as a. stranger by the people of the Old Country, and I bet he will exhaust his i vocabulary in praise of. the wonderful kindness and consideration that he met with everywhere without exception! Sir, it is ho wonder that our fellows elect to choose their life partners from the land that produced their own ancestors. Surely, a man has the privilege- to make his ■ own choice, and because "he does i the absurdity that, he is disloyalis brought into a discussion concerning leave. Bring the Main Body fellows back, by all means, but I trust that you will not allow the discussion of the subject in your <wlumns to be made the means of introducing remarks' that reflect on young women from the Old Country. No written praise, of-them mould .do justice to their unselfish and untiring kindness to New Zealanders on leave or otherwise. Let mo just remind your Auckland correspondent that their reply to her greeting ,of "stranger" "is "welcome" toouy; feljowsj'in capital letters, and that there is'not'm'uch Christianity in her remarks either.—l am, etc., '■•'■■■■' ' - RETURNED SOLDIER. 28th September, 1918.