Dunedin Letter

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 6307, 3 November 1915, Page 3

Dunedin Letter

(Own Correspondent.) (Held over Irom last issue.Ji Another big day. Glorijous sunshine, blue skies, a gentle (breeze,, flags flying cheerily lrom the roof-tops and the streets filled wjth well dresßed crowds that surged down to the wharf there to/ wait in expeotant knots. Such, wasDunedin from eight o'clock en Wednesday morning till mid-day, A visitor from Mars might well have been pardoned had he mistaken the festive scene as representing part of some popular out-door festival. .Everything and everyjbpdy seemed outwardly happy and given over to fine enjoyment. But, alas, for the outward appearance, The gathering and Sag waving, the pushing and the cheering, the band playing and the shouting meat were not in honour of the end oi the War, a declaration of . peace, or the home-coming of our own victorious I lads. Far from each and all oi these wag the simple truth. What Dunedin ( had emptied itself into the streets to j do was to welcome back its invalids, the men who had fought and suffered and, from, the military standpoint, j failed. They had fought well, and they had fought vamly. True they had put up a record and a story that men will not willingly let die—but they and their gallant comrades had failed. Of this there is now no doubt. Failed, that is, in achieving what they had been set to do.

The fault, happily, was not theirs. They were asked to do the impossible and they were unable to do it. They had to fling i themselves against precipices armed with machine guns and though they never shrunk from the linging part of the cruel game, the precipices and guns beat them nearly every time. We were given a task, fay some, we should never have been given. And it does seem to be asking too much to order lads to jump into the water amid a hail oi shell, to wade to the shore, and then to climb a cliff and silence a clever, alert enemy who was lighting on his own ground. We recall the thrill of pride that surged through us when we iirst read how on April 25th last the -Nev. Zca'land and Australian lads sprang joyfully ashore at Gaba Tepe, and we think sadly oS the message that cunu to hund only this past week : '( From a military point of view the position of our troops on the Gallipoli Beninaula is more unfavourable than it wa;six months ago." Meanwhile the streets are ringing with cheers and motor car after motoi car is rushing through the narrow route between -thick lines of peoplethat stand crying aloud clear from the wharf up Rattray into itfrinces street, right along to the new big drill shed at Kensington. There were nhout 100 or so altogether. Many wounded, all more or less sick and all

sinilintr. They seemed a lot, yet on had only to think ( |uictly tor one half-minute to comprehend how piti\illy weak and poor—numerically that is—they wore. Why, the casualty list at the Dardanelles alone, excludin<: the naval losses, is nearly 100,000 What, then, is our small handful anion.; so many ? But we cheered and we cheered and we cheered. To us, at least, these lads, many of them, with drawn faces and pallid cheeks, were victors in the fray. And we welcomed them back and we rejoice to see them, .■mil we envy their record and we pray that they nisj all soon he »trong> and well again and that should they return, oH stay on where they now are, ihey, at all eventß will have the lasttng and abiding satisfaction of knowing thaO when the call came they sprang up and answered gladly "Here am T, send me." Which reminds me that we are now taking steps towards getting- hold oi the " shir! era." We arc still a long way from the one and only way but by the time the double eagle is ilying over the Town Hall we shall sett these. Meanwhile the Hon. James Allen—a most obstinate (determined) and stiffnecked (firm resolve, once convinced he is right) Minister of Defence clings despairing to the more than discredited system of so-callod' voluntaryism, which tempts me to say that there ia precious little voluntaryism about it. All the lads who voluntarily ottered left us long ago. What we have now, and what we are trying to get hold of are those' we call shirkers," and very tough nuts they are. Let there be no hesitating about it. Shirkers there are and shirkers v- a have. There [are whole families of boy» of fighting age, there are young men svho ride motors and play tennis, and wear ilannels who say plainly they won't go. And it is just these and none other that our hearts long for. But wha.t' we want, and what the Government propose are, two very different things. All the Government are at present doing is to ask a few confidential (strictly) questions. Many of us don't care whether they are confidential or not. Who worries about my affairs ? What do I care if the whofe world knows that my family of thirteen daughters are absolutely dependent on their proud but strictly respectable father ? Or that one i« a nurso, another a teacher and a third a dress model in a tailor's window • ff it will do the Government any good to learn, under the headiDi; "occupation" that 1 am the writer of Duncdfa Xotea in the Tuapeka Times will let 'em know. Much good may it do 'em. Fortunately lam beyond their reach. 1 know that for years they have been thirsting for my blood but have not yet succeeded in getting it. When they do I expect them to mix it with boiling oil, melted lead or some of the many other scents and perfumes of which o Uicialism keeps a large stoci_ always on hand, and make a boot polish o! it—which being interpreted meanß " wipe their feet on me." The one overshadowing' question, however, is will they catch the shirker ? Personally I think not. If you catch him he can't shirk. Ergo, he ceases to be a shirker. But they are going to have a try. Hence those heavt-to-heart talk* which a patriot named Payne named as impertinent. Here they are. What is your name 'answer " Yes " or "No"). Are you ft male or female ? (answer " Yes " or " No."). How long have you been 80? (answer "Yes" or "No."). How long do you intend to remain so ? (answer "Yes" or "No"). Have you a grandfather, an aunt, or a mother ?or is there a heare* one, dearer one still than all other ? i(Don't answer this unless you feel morally bound to do. so). Are you doing i anything for your country ? When d'id you begin, how far have you got. when will it end ? (answer Yes—No, No—Yes). If not state why not, .and suggest briefly your family history, the colour of your teeth, your chestevpansion. the ahape of y«nr leg, and what c'.-iss of svork you are prepared to' undertake (all billets requiring large regular salaries and Bo work have long since been filled). Would you be prepared to act, temporarily, in the event of your being called called' upon, as Prime Minister or Minister of Defence ? (answer " Yes " or'"No"). If not why not ? f (citizens are cautioned against the advice of over modeity). Failure to answer these questions renders the malefactor liable to a fine ofr £IOO 'or two months' imprisonment. So we are getting on. Already we are upon the border line, beyond which I see a lair, prosperous and mighty land n-ith each man acting as hU own executioner and' every eterker smoking contentedly beneath sojaueone else's vine and % tree.