LONELY SOLDIERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20452, 13 January 1941, Page 4

LONELY SOLDIERS

REMARKABLE RESPONSE FIVE TIMES REQUIREMENTS Since the office of the National Patriotic Fund Board in Wellington opened on Monday after the holidays, quite a large file has been established containing over 100 letters from people all over the Dominion who read the'announcement that the board had received a preliminary list of the names of 11 men serving with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in England whom the padres consider may rightly be classed as genuinely “lonely soldiers.” After pointing out that the response had greatly exceeded anticipations and paying tribute to all those who had written for their generous patriotic spirit, Mr. G. A. Hayden, secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, said that the intention was to make available the name of one of the soldiers to every two people. There were 11 names and this procedure would mean that only 22 of the applicants would receive names, and they would be chosen according to the order in which their applications had been received.

Mr. Hayden regretted that it ,was not possible to give a name to each of the applicants; if that were done, the “lonely • soldiers” would be swamped with parcels and letters. That would neither be fair to their colleagues nor to the men themselves, for it would involve them in considerable correspondence, which they would find difficult and costly to undertake.