WRITE TO TOE BOYS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17123, 26 October 1917, Page 4

WRITE TO TOE BOYS.

"Letters axe sirr.ply everything here." writes a New Zealand soldier from the front, " and one sometimes feels rather bitter against those of one's friends who do not trouble +o ■write. . . I do well enough, but there p.re some chaps w Ths hardly ever get a htter, and it is very sad. They may "have no near relatives, but there are few without friends who Could write to them." This touching reminder may be supplemented by a passage from a V M.C.A. report:—

Let everyone, as many as can, write to the bo7/s. They are so keen on mails—now all too few; and when the mail bag is scrted in the military post office, "what a scramble an 1:! rush !" One would imagine that some hivge Tattersail's sweep was bein^ drawn. If those who do write regularly could only see the faces of the mon as they often wave their lot of corresDondeaoe aloft by wny of bravado they would be well repaid.

Soldiers who happily possess mothers, or sisters, or wives, are not likely to be neglected; but it is said that stay-at-home brothers are apt to be forgetful or careless (though, Heaven knows, they ought not to be), and the obligations of friendship iv this matter are me. always honoured us generously as thay might be. An absent soldier's friends and acquaintances should not wait until they hear from the front; nor should they make a point of expecting regular replies, for the circumstances are enentirely different. Again, though there may have been no close intimacy and no previous habit of correspondence

soldiers will always be 'grateful for letters from well-wishing acquaintances. "I simply can't tell you how pleased I was to hear from you," is the beginning of a letter 'rom a New Zealander in the trenches to :i man whom he had not expected to write. And here, again, is an extract from a private letter sent by a Taiiiape soldier, who at the time of writing was in the firing line in France.—"The N-w Zealand mail was a fortnight overdue, and we all thought that the Hun had managed to get it, but, thank goodness, he missed. Ons of our mails to yoM folks lias been sunk, which is rather disheartening; but, oh, wouldn't we have been down in tha dumps if he sank this one, or any others, as there i 5 nothing like a good old New Zealand mail—it's the thing to cheer you up." So keep writing."