BETTER THAN BALACLAVAS.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 789, 13 August 1915, Page 6

BETTER THAN BALACLAVAS.

A Machine Gun Fund,

J* E'RE just like a lot of old hand WW loom spinners compeiting against steam-driven spindles." That is the rough-and-ready way in which a Yorkshireman at. the front described the position, in Flanders when referring to the immense number of ma-

chine guns employed by the enemy. The day of the rifle may not yet have arrived, but it is coming faslt. Such' is the lesson of the recent fighting, not only m Flanders, but in .Poland. • For one machine gun possessed by the Allies, the Huns have a hundred, and when we remember that one machine gun is equal to a hundred rifles, it.is easy. to see what this . shortage of the new arm means to our men. * ' * *■ « Canada has set. an excellent example to the rest of the Oversea Dominions Jn instituting special subscriptions for the purchase of machine guns. Every little town in the Dominion, from Halifax to Vancouver, is giving its gun; banks, big mercantile and wholesale corporations, are donating guns. In each province there, is a nealthy rivalry as to who u-supp.ly the most machine guns. ±he Canadian example should be followed here, and followed at once. Balaclavas arid sheepskin waistcoats are all very well in their way, but wars are noifc worn by keeping the men warm, but by killing or wounding as many of the . other fellow s" men as possible, and in the shortest possible time. Wherefore it is up to us in New Zealand to provide as many machine guns as possible, firstlor the use of our own brave lads at the JJardaneiles, second for the equally gallant Britishers in Flanders. * * * '# ',

Whalt district, what city, what townsnip is to have the honour of makins the necessary start? Is- Wellington to be true to her -title of the Capital! City < by setting the ball rolling, or are those .splendidly generous.', warm-hearted Wai•rarapa people to give the lead ? By the time the next number of the Fbee jLlance goes to press, we hope to see a Machine Gun Fund floated and the' sovereigns rolling in merrily for the benefit ° one best and most practical ways of helping the Motherland that; '?+ 8 p been -mooted. Who win...start it. Don t all speak a/fc once*!