STRIKERS REPROACHED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15930, 29 May 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

STRIKERS REPROACHED.

LESSON FROM THE TRENCHES. Seven members of n London regiment have signed a letter sent home by a young lance-corporal. It is full of cheery optimism for.; the future, except for those passages where the authors sharply rebuke the working men at li'Ohfe 'who want to go on strike. Extracts from the letter are as follow :— f " After tasting the.sweetness of victory our lads are wound up and are eager for it again. Our advanced positions have been strengthened, and are now equal to, if not better than, the lines we have left. We have worked incessantly and untiringly from dusk till dawn since our advance in consolidating the advantages we have gained. It has been, indeed, hard and risky work, and very little sleep . has been enjoyed, but sheer determination to hotel *.o every inch of ground that we have wen so dearly has given us unlimited strength to stick to it. We are winning, and winning honourably. Superiority of artillery and high standard of fighting qualities, combined with the grit and perseverance of the British, are gradually burrowing forward, and administering by a scries of hard knocks- (skilfully timed and placed) the death blow of Prussian militarism, I don't know what to think of the strikers at home. Here we are out here, righting in a, muddy, water-logged trench, suffering every hardship that it is possible to imagine- Wet feet, frozen feet, chilled to the bono at night from the intense cold and frost, working hard, dig: ging arid carrying, and risking our necks all the lime, seeing our comrades falling by our sides, and wondering whether it is our turn next. And-"for all this we get a shilling a day. We have given up our jobs, our homes, our liberties, and pleasures, and are sacrificing our lives in taking our stand by the side of our regular army, in the name of a great cause—to save England from the ravages of a foreign felon. We can endure our hardships bravely, we can go into battle fearlessly, wo are willing to sacrifice everything in such a noble cause as long as wo are con-* viiierd, the people at home are with us in thought and spirit; but when we hear of our fellow-countrymen acting as these men are acting, it is very discouraging and makes us think. Kitchener, I hope, will deal with them as he is dealing with the common enemy, and make both master and man .sit up fur their selfishness.''