HELPING SOLDIERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 253, 24 September 1942, Page 4

HELPING SOLDIERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Under the above title a soldier wrote setting out the lonely condition of the soldier in camp and finished up his letter by stating "ho liad been here six months and did not know one person with whom he could hold a conversation." Everyone of us in this city fully appreciates what the soldier has to put up with, and all of us, I am sure, are doing our best to help in this difficult and trying time, but this lonely soldier must, I think, realise that there is some responsibility resting on him to make his wants knoivn. There is no earthly reason why a soldier should be here six months without knowing anyone. In writing as he did he is casting a reflection on the ladies conducting the A.N.A. Club in Broadway and the A.N.A. Dance Committee, to say nothing of the Hospitality Committee, who arrange for soldiers to visit private homes, and in this connection have already arranged for 561 soldiers to be received into private homes. There is something like 70 or 80 arranged for every week. The chairman of this committee is Mrs W. J Minogue, 155 Grey Street (telephone 7001), who will be pleased to receive the names of any families desiring to extend week-end hospitality to the soldiers in camp. Soldiers desiring hospitality are to hand their names to the camp adjutant, who in turn is i>; touch with the Hospitality Committee. In conclusion let me assure the f.oldiers in camp that we are all desirous of helping to make their stav in camp in Palmerston North as happy as possible. —Yours, etc.. A. E. MANSFOP.D. Mayor.