LETTERS TO A SOLDIER

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1943, Page 8

LETTERS TO A SOLDIER

Dear Jack, —I hope you got the cable we sent you on your birthday. We wanted to send something with it —just a few pounds to help you do the honours among your friends, but as you know, the year’s allowance which is all the Government allows us to send you was taken up with the money we sent from your savings bank‘account to replace the gear you lost at El Alamein. When I remember how much I used to appreciate an occasional money order from home when on leave in London during the last war, I can well understand your feelings—but there it is, and we must put up with it. It’s all part of the lesson we’ve been learning since 1938, when Mr. Nash had to admit that the financial position of New Zealand, instead of being bright and healthy, as he had claimed prioi’ to the election, was in fact so desperate that he had to stop all sorts of necessary imports, and at the same time take steps which made our money practically valueless overseas. A lot has happened since those days, and the war and all its tragedies and triumphs have tended to take our minds off our own problems. But it would be a bad thing for New Zealand if we allowed ourselves to forget the horrible mess this Government had got into before the war and how good old Britain, as usual, came to the rescue.

These days, when we are heavily taxed, and when many things are necessarily expensive, and others in short supply, we are apt to forget that we had those worries even before the war. Naturally the Government would like to put all the blame on the war, but I don’t think the voters .will be hoodwinked so easily this time. Yours ever.—Dad. —5.