STRUGGLE TO LIVE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1934, Page 3

STRUGGLE TO LIVE

BUNS AND TEA ON ROAD. EX-OFFICER’S SAD STORY. In a moving story told in London recently an xxnemployed major, an expublic schoolboy, described his heartbreaking fight for existence. After spending years in and out of hospital, he found himself “up against it,” and with 3s in his pocket set off to walk from London to Brighton after a job. “The weather.” the man said, “was frightfully hot, and the road dusty. I took what sleep I could by the side of. the road, and bought penny buns , and tea to keep me going. My one chance depended on looking smart, and on reaching Brighton I txxrned my collar inside out. Then I was told the man whom I had come to see had left for France.”

Returning on foot to London, the ex--officer got an introduction te a firm in Bristol, but after walking. there he said “the medical examination 'shimped me.” For. a while afterwards he was befriended by a lorry-driver, but eventually had to seek shelter in the church crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Felds. Then the wanderer was taken into a hostel in Belveare Road. “Here, at last,” said the narrator, “I found the place I had been longing for. The nearest approach is coming out of battle and going into hospital. After the. strain, its wonderful. Here they let fellows like myself live. “Of course, my difficulties were chiefly caused by ill-health, but during my wanderings I met hundreds of cases like * mine, and, of course, a good many that were worse than mine. The hardship really falls on the married man who has a responsibility toward wife and children.”