LASTING RESPECT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21574, 9 February 1940, Page 9

LASTING RESPECT

War Comradeship A LEE-COATES INCIDENT “When men have risked their lives together in a shellhole or a trench they will not be able to resist afterwards having a little human respect for one another,’’ said Mr J. A. Lee, M.P., at the last recruiting rally in the Town Hall, Dunedin, on Wednesday, when talking of the war experiences of men w’ho now find themselves together as members of the House of Representatives. “Not a few of the members of the House of Representatives have enlisted, and I, too, would be in khaki again if it were possible,” Mr Lee said. “Some of them are on the Government side of the House and others are from the other side. In the House I differ from Colonel Hargest, who will be General Hargest, as he is to command a brigade. There have been times when I haven’t thought much of his politics, but I have never met a man who served under him in the last war say he was other than a worthwhile man. “I think of Gordon Coates,” Mr Lee added. “I defy.you to put any number of men into a shellhole or a trench and let them risk their lives together, and say that afterwards they will be able to help respecting one another, no matter how much their opinions may differ. I remember one right in the Somme when I was just about done, and had a long way to go coming out. Gordon Coates was with the outfit coming in. He took one look at me and gave me something that made that march out a hundred times easier.”