WILL NOT WEAR GERMAN GLOVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18008, 19 November 1926, Page 7

WILL NOT WEAR GERMAN GLOVES.

TRAFFIC INSPECTOR IN AUCKLAND RESIGNS. (Special to the “Star.”) AUCKLAXD, Xovcmber 10. Because he considers it a mockery that he should be asked on Armistice Day to observe two minutes’ silence for his fallen comrades with German gloves on his hands. Traffic Inspector J. L. Doherty has resigned from the traffic department of the Auckland City Council. No statement with regard to Mr Doherty’s resignation has appeared in the Auckland papers, but Mr Doherty declared that, a returned soldier himself, it was too much to ask him to wear German-made gloves, and he simply refused to do it. “ There was onlv one course open to me, and that was to resign,” he said, “ and I have resigned. I served at the front frCm 1914 to 1918, aud I saw enough of the Hun and his ways to learn to dislike him, so it was only natural that I should complain at the outset against wearing German-made gloves; but what was the use? There were other returned men, too, who complained. but it did no good. We fellows who had seen our pals shot down by German bullets and bayoneted with German steel were obliged to wear German gloves. 1 hold that no gloves at all would have been decidedly preferable. “ Then came Armistice Day, with its memories, and I was asked to stand at the intersection of two of Auckland s principal streets and observe two minutes’ silence in memory of those pals of mine who fell. I was asked to stand there with those memories and those German gloves. “ It. was asking too much of me. T refused. I tore the gloves from my hands. It was a mockery in my eyes ayid I refused to do it. There was one course open to me—to resign—and I *have resigned. Four years of liell on the other side have made a lasting impression on my memory, and I will never wear a German article while returned men are out of work.”