WAR NOTES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 290, 27 September 1915, Page 3

WAR NOTES.

VISIT OF MR WILL CROOKS. Full of confidence and bubbling -over with enthsiasm for the British soldier, Mr Will Crooks, M.P., is bach from the fighting line. Looking bronzed after his fortnight on the Continent, the popular member for Woolwich could not speak too highly of the men he lias been living with. “And what are your greatest impressions, Mr Crooks?” asked the “Sunday Times” representative, who saw him at his home in Poplar. “Good Very good! The men are simply splendid. All they want is ‘the goods.’ ” “Still?” “Oh, yes, though to a lesser degree.” Mr Crooks spoke at 22 meetings,and “never,” to use his own words, “was a man better received or better treated. in the world,” “Did you go up into the trenches?” “Bill” smiled and shook his head.’“l went wherever I was allowed. More than that I can’t tell you.” At several of the camps the great question was t)he Welsh coal strike, and the genial M.P. gives his version of what took place.

“I said ‘The strike will he over by Tuesday next,’ and- on Wednesday the good news came through, so I was able to brag and boast of being a hit of a prophet. When a Tommy shouted out, ‘How did you know, Billl?’ I replied, Tt’s the same (little bird that whispers all the world over.’ AND THE HOUSE CHEERED. “One great event,” Mr Crooks went on to say, “was a concert given by Miss Lena Ashwell, which was crowded by Tommies and officers. I had finished addressing two camps that night, and reached the theatre at a quarter to ten. As soon a s I made my appearance in the balcony you would have tjhought it was the arrival of Lord Kitchener for the whole house got up and cheered, and even the performers came forward to help to clap. “The Uads were simply magnificent everywhere, and tjhe slightest kindnes s or little attention or message from home made them as happy as children. “I visited some of the hospital camps and one pathetic sight at one place was the convalescent soldiers who came to hear me, and carried in brother soldiers who had been badly wounded. The poor fel!ow s would not a!Mow the others to take them away till I had a personal chat with them. Hew the men talked and laug)hed I They were real ] gems! |

The great story -was my visit to a physically deficient school centre to give away the prizes. I said to the kiddies: ‘Now, I’m going to France tomorrow to see your daddies, your uncles, and your brothers. What shall I tell them?' One little piping voice replied, ‘Tell them, Mr Crooks, we can sing ‘God Save the King’ as well as they can.’ Tjhat little story seemed to touch them deeply.

ALMOST EMBRACED. “ ‘What are the boys at home doing, Bill,’ wa s a frequent questim. ‘Don’t forget, my lads/ I replied, ‘thit the shirkers have no sympathy from the home-folks, whose hearts an I souls rue with you.’ I had a little Union Jack with me, and after speaking at a Y.M.C.A. hut —the Y.M.C.A. people, by tjhe way, are doing magnificent work for the comfort and entertainment of the men —I opened it out. There was no need to c/y for three cheers! At one gathering a French officer was so pleased that I thought he was actually going to embrace me. “The boys themselves are full of quips and good Ihumour., On e chap shouted, ‘How about the market, Bill?’ referring to Poplar. The whole crowd went into fits, when I retorted in coster style, ‘Big ’nns are large; they’re all fine to-day.’ Then f hummed off th e old melody, beginning, ‘Red cabbages to pickle I do cty-,’ and winding up, ‘Fine apples a penny a pound.!. The applause that followed would have satisfied Melba.” HIS NEW JOB. “Are you likely to ay them a return Visit?” asked f,he interviewer.

“Well, if invitations count for anything, I would never hav e come home. But I’ve got a new job; they’ve switched me on to munitions here at home. “What am I going to do? No, I must not tell you. But I’ll tell you this, the men out there are worth all we can do for them here —and a jolly sight more. Good night! A SOLDIER’S TRIBUTE. The following tribute to Mr Crooks is paid by Corporal George Thompson: “Whoever had the brainy notion of sending out Mr Will Crooks to act as general cheerer-up to the men in the fighting line deserves credit for it. There is no doubt that it’s great medicine, when you’re feeling fed up with the hard life in the fighting line, to go down to the base and hear a racy speech from a man like Crooks. The boys all enjejy it.

“One chap went to hear him every time, and on the day when he got his order s to rejoin his unit he went up to Mr Crooks and said: ‘God bless you, sir; it’s done me a power of good only to listen to you. I cam e down from the “line” a wreck, I’m going back a man again.’ Something like that is what we all feel aobut it. RELIGIOUS CONSOLATION. “Thereare lots of people who try to cheer us up; but they are not all so successful as Crooks. They mean well, only their efforts are not always as goed as their intention. Somebody sent our battalion a gross of ‘Holy Living and Dying.’ We sent them over to the Germans. They seemed more suited for that quarter than for us. “Every time a soldier’s name and regiment appear in the papers he is sure to get endless packets of cheerful literature with headings such as ‘Eternity! Where?’ ‘Prepare to Meet Thv God!’ One brigb* American effort i s headed -in large black letters, ‘Scl-

dier, if You Were Shot Dead this Moment, Where Would You Go To? Heaven or Hell.’ If people at Home cannot do better than that they had better not send us anything.”