APPEAL FOR POET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 413, 3 November 1930, Page 8

APPEAL FOR POET

SIR WILLIAM WATSON POVERTY-STRICKEN AND ILL. Received Nov. 2. 8.30 p.mv. LONDON, Nov. 1. That Sir William Watson is lying £ll and poverty-stricken, is revealed by a letter signed by many famous authors, artists, actors and other prominent personages including Barry, Rudyard Kipling, Bernard Shaw, Lloyd George and Viscount Burnham, inaugurating a testimonial fund.

The letter says: “Sir William WaL* son remained faithful to the high purposes with which he set out and splendidly fulfilled. them in nearly 30 volumes of poetry, in which he shows himself as great a craftsman as a lord of languages as he is in Aliltonic tradition. He has spent 58 of his 72 years of life in august but materially unremunerative service. His music is the oldeht of our poets and he lies ill and poverty-stricken. ’ ’ The appeal points out that the world is often neglectful of its chief authentic singers and hopes it will have here no cause for final self-reproach. The letter adds: “Despite the abnormal difficulties everywhere, we have no doubt that the appeal will meet with an immediate and generous response in Britain, the Dominion and America. Sir William Watson, who is suffering from bronchial trouble, is mostly confined to his bed. He is residing at Bath.