DAMNABLE!

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1507, 11 December 1918, Page 4

DAMNABLE!

• i To the Editor of THE SUN. pi Sir, —Mr Editor, do you know what it is to be full iiii ? Not in the usually 1 accepted way, but full up with indig--1; nation! Well, that’s me. Since readying The Sun on the Wanganui scandal -1 and the cruel Roy Clemens ease, 1 have 1 i tried to keep silent, hut I can’t do it i 1 any longer. 1 feel like hanging ray ; i head in shame. I have very little time 1 j for many of the so-called “C.O.’s, ” but • j the worst criminal in tlie lain! has the • I right to be treated, and is treated. ’ j better than were some of the “C.O.’s” I . at Wanganui. I hate hy[i®cmy, and ■ | yet it seems to me our action in passing • I resolutions, in amt nut of Parliament, I I regarding the barbarity of the Kaiser ■jand his hordes, savours of rank 1 1 hypocrisy, when we have such doings 1 , in our midst. And, then, to think of ’ the answer of the Minister of Defence, M that he “didn’t know’’ where a ser- ’ i geant was. Didn’t want to know ’ j would sum it up better! I don’t care ’ I tuppence for politics, but I am so heartily disgusted at these revelations 1 1 and the supine indifference of members 1 ; of Parliament, that I feel I would vote I for a Chinaman in order to get a change 'j of some sort. 1 have never coveted J Joseph Hamlet’s vocabulary until now, ( jbut I plead guilty at this moment; for , i what would I give to have his diction- ' | ary alongside of me, so that I could j pour forth great unpronounceable, non- - j understandable adjectives, and thus relieve my penf-up feelings! | Take the late Roy Clemens. This Ij is the way I feel over the affair. I Jam a married man with a family. I , 1 stayed home in New Zealand while . j others went to fight for me and mine. II Among them was Roy Clemens. lie . | gains distinction, is wounded, and | brought home. Instead of being treated • like the hero he is, he doesu’t get the | care of a racehorse or a prize bull! 1 1 Nice, isn’t it? Damnable? Yes, a | thousand times. The boy has gone, ; and his father’s words have struck a . chord in ever} - father’s heart. We symi pathise with him and the country in his . and their loss. But what else are we , going to do? What is Parliament i doing? I contend, sir, that it is the duty of every man who remained in New Zealand to rise up and demand from Sir James Allen the trial, before a competent tribunal, of all those concerned in both the above affairs, and I suggest J that his Worship the Mayor call a public meeting to give effect to the i above suggestions. I would like you, sir, to deal editorially with this , | aspect, seeing you have written such (splendid articles already..With a heart i full of bitterness, I sign ray owu name. — H. GLADSTONE HILL. J St. Albans, December 9.