TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11595, 13 January 1916, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

FOUR LINES. , <*. Tho Government of Turkey has Issued a regulation that prisoners of war may write one letter of four lines eacli week, and letters to them must, not bo more than four lines. The Turks are being informed that similar regulations will apply to Ottoman prisoners in British hands. Four lines from home, how eagerly ho reads them; Four linos from home, he has them off by heart; In a strange land; how bitterly he needs, them WhiJo bars of war keep him and homo apart. Better the swift and red delight of battle, , .' With its toil and its pain ana' its meed of death for some, Better the song of shells and. rifles' rattle, Than to sit starving for four lines from home. Four lines may hold a world of joy and sorrow; Dad takes his pen: "Im writing this, dear Bill, To say mum's well and Sue 11 be Mod to-morrow; . . i The roan cow's dead,"but uncle's with us still; Joe looks for work, and no ono does it Young Tommy Smith " the, Censor, like a bomb, Drops his fat pencil on the luckless letter. And Bill stays wondering what occurred to Tom. Four lines to tell the folk at homo his story, • , . All the wild thunder of the Anzac rush, Hammering of pulses, bursting thoughts of glory, Then the lost squad amid tho stunted bush; The hopeless plight, with foemen all around him—"Tho blooming hills was; crawling with the swines"— Wound'ed and helpless there they came and found him; '. All this to tell, V they give a chap four lines. Onlv four lines like Petrograd officials; The situation in the north's, unchanged, There have been fights at places all initials, Enemy's artillery our own outranged; South x nothing to report. It sets him swearing, While he's there waiting for Ins mail to come, ( It cuts him like a knife, the way he s caring, Looking and longing for four lines from home. '* , M —Sydney "Sun."