EIGHTH CONTINGENT.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 23 November 1901, Page 3

EIGHTH CONTINGENT.

(To the Editor of the Times.) Slit, —Allow me to have a word or two w’ith the correspondent “ West End. I think he ought to be placed among the Anglophobias in Germany, for it is most outrageous that anyone should make such comments about the brave men at the front. It is easy enough for stay-at-home ! critics to talk—they are the kind of men j who would end the war in a couple of days if they were only placed at the head of affairs —but they should at least keep to the truth, instead of sneering at the men who are serving their country. The editorial footnote to the letter of West End ” was a fitting one, but to my mind it was not half strong enough. In the same issue of the Times there was3 a ca hle’ gram giving the pith of Lord Salisbuiy s remar ks: “ England is the only country where, during a great war, eminent men are permitted to write and speak as if they were the enemy.” Those words are also true of the insignificant men who write anonymous letters to the papers declaring that our men are doing nothing in the field except such things as stealing poultry and burning farm-houses. From beginning to end the letter is a gross misrepresentation, and should not have been penned by any honest and loyal Britisher, j I am, etc., A Fair Fiklu.

(To the Editor of the Times.) Silt, —While I admire the splendid enthusiasm of “ Volunteer,” I for one would like to raise a voice against any proposal to send further contingents to South Africa. In the early days, the despatch of contingents had a strong moral force, showing that the colonies were ranked on the side of the Mother Country when it came to a matter of lighting, even though tile quarrel was not of our own making, and even though many of us have our own ideas a 3 to how far certain people who take no risk themselves are responsible for the awful bloodshed that has surely staggered humanity. But the time has now gone past when more of our young men need be sent away from | good honest toil to take to the shooting of their fellow-men on the veldt. The colonies cannot afford the men. There is better work for them in the avenues of peace, and while it may suit certain people to seek for kudos by the sending away of more of our young men, the country has now surely had enough oi it. It must be clear to those who have followed the course of the war that what is really wanted is a changed method in the way officers are appointed. Only the other day we were told of a duke being appointed to the command of an army. I have nothing but the deepest regard for royalty and all connected therewith, but can anyone honestly say' that the members of our Royal Family have ever qualified themselves for other than honorary positions in the army ? Yet we hear an outcry against Buller because he made himself unpopular in certain circles, but no outcry against the duke.—l am, etc., Veteran.