VICTIMS OF WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 88, 11 March 1930, Page 7

VICTIMS OF WAR.

VOICE IN CAUSE OF PEACE. General Sir lan Hamilton who is president of the British Legion in the Metropolitan Area, of London, was one of the speakers at a meeting held in connection with a proposed new club house for the Holborn branch. Referring to tire fact that he had just reached his seventy-seventh birthday, Sir lan said that one kind gentleman had written to him in Latin to say that it was a pity he had not died on Majuba Hill, in 1881. This gentleman was a war fanatic, and his objection was to his (Sir lan Hamilton’s) using the unveiling of war memorials as a platform from which to spread the wonderful thought that perhaps — possibly—by a supreme effort, and the British Legion helping, we might be able to close down war altogether. Well, he was going to stick to it. Old soldiers could do a lot—perhaps more than anyone else. On Christmas Day a body of badly disabled British soldiers had entrusted him with the message of “Cheerio 1” to be sent to all badly disabled soldiers in German hospitals. In response, 2875 German soldiers, blinded by our shells, sent their heartfelt thanks to our wounded for the message, and expressed a wish to cooperate with them for the badly disabled by the war. The German State Association of Disabled Soldiers and Persons Bereaved by the War also asked him to convey their greetings to ex-service men in a similar position in England. Another State association which did the same added; “The victims of the war feel that they, above all others, have the right to make their voices heard in the cause of peace.”