EVERY MAN AND WOMAN'S WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 200, 20 August 1918, Page 6

EVERY MAN AND WOMAN'S WAR

(To the .Editor. ) Sir, —I was sitting in a railway carriage some little time ago. when a. strange lady s;iiied in and sat down beside several artillerymen who were on leave. She opened up a discussion' on no less a subject than the war,, and i from h>ir talk I judged that her husband had gone to the front. It was evident, that he had been called up in one oT the early classes, and the home life had thus been broken up. She was very loud in her remarks. She practically t>aid that many were suffering from the cold feet complaint, because thev were not in the infantry, and ended by saying. "This is a young man's war." It is such noneen.se as thi s tha.t makes one disgusted with much of the public mind. This is not a young man' s war any more than it is the affair of every man and every woman. We all recognise that the' Second Division deserve certain consideration, but it does not deserve exemption from service. If a man marries and in ten year s has two children, he has not done so much with marriage for his country that he should be exempted from active service. A single man of twenty working on a farm and i:>roducing crops and stock is a greater asset than a married man working in the city and avoiding the establishing of a family. Therefore my lady friend should not become so heated in her arguments and denounce the voting men who are leaving our shore, at the age of twenty. When a man is thirty years of age he has seen a good deal' of life and has had te.i« years to make good or otherwise. The man who is an asset is he who has a familv of several. If the man of thirty has done this, he is not required for service a,« yet, but if he has made has married life one for pleasure and gain and has not contributed to the manpower of the country, then he has not proved himself. Therefore the lad of twemtv is making the. greater sacrifice. With' the bloom of youth upon him, with ambition and ability as yet untried, he steps from the path which his parents had made for him. to camp, and often pay s the supreme sacrifice. He lays everything down without having had any of the opportunities of life, and goes forward. Therefore I do not think there is wisdom in the statement 1 tha.t this is a young man's war. The ! young men who hare gone to the front ami those who return do not share the result of the exploiting which ha s gone lon in New Zealand ever since the war began . I contend, therefore, that it is not a young main's war. Our "victory will .not be all credited to the young men, ,aud the gain; S will not be all theirs : so please, if your readers harbour the opinion of my train friend'., let them see the other side of the question which I have tried. I hope successfully, to lay he fore your readers. T am, etc., THE MOTHER OF A SOLIiDiER ■JUST T'CRTSraD TTvENTY 1 .