MEN OR CHILDREN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1162, 1 November 1917, Page 4

MEN OR CHILDREN.

. To the Editor of THE SUN. , Sir, —Being a lover of truth, I feel t compelled to challenge Mr W. 6. Jamieson’s statements re the attention given r New Zealand troops on leave in Engj land. In the first place, he accuses the ) people of England of being inhospitable, 3 and failing to realise what the New 3 Zealand soldiers are there for. Surely the people at Home must have heard 1 that there is a war on, at least one 3 would think so after hearing some of the returned troopers’ accounts of how 3 they have, been given a royal welcome in the Old Country, and, in fact, given i far more attention there than when they came back here, to be regarded I more or less as curios. Does Mr Jamieson realise that these j troops are men and not children on a Sunday school treat? Does he think they need fussing around and taking ( care of in the same manner? If so, I would suggest that a special ship he sent with every reinforcement, to enable their mothers to accompany them. ! I say most emphatically that a man who sees a brothel in every barber’s shop or 1 hotel cannot have a very broad mind, and I challenge him to give the ad- | dresses of aJI these places he is refer- ! ring to, and ask him whether, when he ’ had ferreted them out, did he report them to the police? Again, which route > did he take across London and find no place to sit down? What has become 1 of all the seats in the parks and open ’ spaces—all the big buildings, i.e., 1 British Museum, Westminster Ab- ' bey, the Tower, St. Paul’s, etc., and hundreds of other places of interest ? Are there no theatres, or would it be considered a crime to visit such places? Arc all these (dosed against the overseas troops, or was Mr Jamieson so eager looking for bad places that he passed them by unnoticed? Now, sir, I admire fair and honest criticism, but I deplore harmful misrepresentation, and it is harmful in this ■ ease, because it is likely to discourage ■ recruiting. I know London well, and will admit it is not a “home for little , children”; but these are men, or why are they there?—l am, etc., TRUTH. St. Albans, November 1.