SOLDIERS’ LETTERS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 219, 17 August 1918, Page 3

SOLDIERS’ LETTERS.

THE HISTORICAL RECORD APPEAL TO RELATIVES The appeal for letters from soldiers who are or who have been on active service in this war for the purposes of collecting material that may be of use for the writing of a history of the part played by New Zealand in the great struggle has met with a fair response, but the Director of Rase Records would be glad to have more of these letters and diaries. Relatives who are in possession of letters from soldiers may perhaps think that they are of no value, but it happens very often that a letter which is made up mostly of personal j matter contains some one or two facts, ; as, for instance, a date or the particular unit which went first into some j action. | It is feared that there is still some distrust on the part of relatives about | the scheme. It should bo understood ‘ that all letters and diaries sent in to j the Base Records Office are most care-; fully recorded. They are read by an officer of the Department, who is not a j soldier, has no rank, and does not wear' uniform. He marks the letter or document without defacing it to show which parts of it he'considers valuable for the purposes of the record to be kept, and these passages so marked are transcribed bv a typist. These are the only two people in the office who see the letters. As soon as a document is scut in r.n acknowledgment goes to the sender, anil immediately afterwards it is read and examined as to its historical value. In most cases the extracts are marie in a couple of days, though it may happen in some cases that a document will be held for a week, but never longer. No personal matter is ever extracted There need be no fear that the contents of any of the letters sent in will bo used in any way against the soldier writing them. The Chief Censor has already undertaken that no disciplinary action will be taken against a man who may have committed breaches of the i censorship rules, or who may have eri- i Iticised a superior officer. In any case 3 the Censor does not see the letters, and, cannot become aware of the contents of i any of them. ‘ A great deal of very valuable ma-j terial has been obtained already, and' the extracts have been selected with thoroughness and classified under suit- j able, headings. It happens that a con-, siderable quantity of matter has been 1 received about the Palestine operations. The Senussi campaign and the Canal | fighting also seem to be fairly fully covered, but more material is wanted about Gallipoli, and especially about the j Sulva Bay operations on August 6, and . the evacuation. Stories about the land- j ing also are always welcome. Battle | stories in letters or diaries rarely fail to j afford useful material. Sometimes. ■ though not very often,‘“'the reflections of soldiers on the war are considered to bo worth recording. Another depart- , ment of army activity not yet fully covered is the medical side. Letters from medical officers would be gladly received. Up till the present the only letters on this subject have been from soldiers in the medical corps or from other soldiers. There have been none from medical officers. And of course any matter about operations in France or in Flanders may produce useful histbrical facts. The record is going to be a useful and valuable one for the compilation of the New Zealand history of the war and it is very desirable that it should be made as complete as possible. It is not'being kept in any perfunctory way.