The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. CONSIDER THE MEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9718, 21 July 1917, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. CONSIDER THE MEN

Some men of ours arc in the filing-line fighting the enemy with cheerful courage. They have not had a day s respite beyond tho regular alternations of ■work and spell which alone make tho fighting service possible. Fighting and enduring, waiting and preparing, their lives pass under a strain which gradually approaches breakingpoint. Tho question of their life was raised in the House the other day, and suggestions made that these, boys of ours so hard-worked in the hardest ot schools, deserve a long holiday. Dr Thacker was very earnest in urging tho point. Ho urged it with skill and persistence in the interest of the men who imperatively require to ho freshened up for the fighting that is yet to bo done. Nor did ho forget tho interest of the parents who aro hungering for tho sight of tho faces which have been away these years, but present, nevertheless, in all the memories that never fade, in the prayers that never lose their fervour, in the longings of unceasing intensity. Ho urged that these young veterans of tho war should bo brought home, for rest, for refreshment, for the pence of homo. For this they would he the better; the cause would bo the better, for their betterment, and the endurance at home would have solace. In this there is nothing sentimental. On the contrary, the doctor was prescribing the best tonic for the virility on which depends the final victory over the enemy. The prescription, moreover, is backed by the precedent of every army now in the field. We have in this city at present some young soldiers of France on their way, as we understand, back to their colonial homes for a well-earned holiday. They are, though young, veterans of some of the greatest battles or the world. They have faced the enemy’s unprecedented shell fire nt Verdun; they have looked into the whites oi hi» eyes over their bayonets; they have joined in furious charge under the unsparing fire; they have retreated with steadiness before overwhelming odds. They have endured every kind of fire, much hunger, the cold of winter nights, the chilling effect of tempests of hail and snow and rain. Among them arc men bearing honourable

scars, anrl many carry witli modest pride tile decorations of valour. They have passed through these experiences on the .Somme, in the valley of the Ancro. in the rush after the enemy through the great salient; they have assaulted the heights of St. Gobain and they have scon the indescribable carnage of many battles. France, never ceasing to love her children, has not failed to .see that these brave follows require rest, has concluded that thev have for tho present done their share, and has sent them out. to their homes, putting other brave men in their plaees. .Most observers declare that France is on the verge of exhaustion, and the exulting enemy declares that she is bleeding white. Tot she has taken these men out nf the hurly-burly, providing them with the rest they need, which they will use to make themselves fit to again take their share in the task of rolling back the tide of battle from the, beloved and beautiful home of their race. Australia, we understand, practically recognises this duty, and though the question of reinforcements presses some Australian soldiers are back in their country. Britain, not unmindful of her soldiers, sees that they, too, find rest from the toil of war in the homes so eager to see them, for a space, forgetting ail griefs in the joy of meeting the dear ones. The New Zealanders at tho front have not met with this consideration. There are men there who have fought on through the whole war. They made tho lauding at Gallipoli, they held up their end through tho groat battles nf that Popinsula, which they helped to make glorious, and they contributed the steadiness ot their courage and tho perfection of their discipline to the success of tho wonderful evacuation. Tho Somme saw them in fierce action, and Mcssluos fell to the ardour of their charge. Amongst them are a proportion of men who fell wounded, were nursed back to convalescence, and fought again. All have endured tho strain which never ceases in trench war after the great battles arc over. Hut these men cannot endure for ever. The weakness of the flesh will never tell on their spirit, but the weakness is not good for Ihe cause, and to keep on it the burden of the great task unrolaxcd is both unfair and uneconomical. No claim is made by any of these men. They arc soldiers of the best. Thev do their duty with grim determination to tho end. Complain they may of the things which affect their dependent-sand friends, but of things affecting their service with tho colours they scorn to speak, ready ever to “stand to’’ for anything; “go over the parapet,’’ or repel attack, or prepare for raiding, or ‘march oack to billets, or return to the front trenches. About this strain there is no murmur. But when their case of hardship is taken up, there is no word against it from any side. Nevertheless, tho Defence Minister, with much sympathy, declares the suggested concession impossible. AYo can understand that tho tonnage difficulty makes the return of those much-enduring, splendid, uncomplaining soldiers a very complicated, if not an impossible, thing. For the sake of their people, whose endurance of their absence in constant danger .i? a sacrifice with which no other sacrifice of the war can compare, wo would it were otherwise. But the increasing calls on the tonnage made by tho military requirements, and the pressure of tho submarine campaign, affect the tonnage problem iu a way which cannot be gainsaid. However, the tonnage problem, whatever may bo its value as an answer to tho proposal to give these war-worn men rest in their own homes, is not an answer at all to the claim for proper and adequate rest. The men' can bo rested _ anywhere. There is plenty of room iu trance to organise a rest cure for them. In England, tho “Blighty” ot their comrades of the Imperial Army, there is every facility. If it is a question of expense, pay, and pay, and pay again, looking only at tho great service done, -it the tremendous and unique strain endured, at tho benefit to the cause as well as to the men. If it is a question of adjustment of the reinforcements, adjust, adjust, and adjust again, if necessary, until the object is attained. Tho preferable thing, which wo would all like, would be to bring tho men homo for their needed spell. But tho indispensable .thing is that spell. They must have it, if the heavens fall.