ABSENT HUSBANDS

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22063, 14 June 1943, Page 2

ABSENT HUSBANDS

DUTY OF FAITHFULNESS APPEAL BY THE CHURCHES (Bv TelegTapH—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday A statement has been issued by Archbishop West-Watson, Archbishop O’Shea, the Rev. J. G. Laughton, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, the Rev. C. H. Olds, president of the New Zealand Methodist conference, the Rev. F. A. Parry, president of the New Zealand Baptist Union, and the Rev. J. Gordon Smith, chairman of the New Zealand Congregational Union, as follows: “Official information has been received by us of a matter which is causing grave concern to chaplains of one of our divisions on active service. A number of men are receiving letters from New Zealand telling of broken engagements and unfaithfulness among married women whose husbands are with the forces. One padre alone was handling 15 cases and there must be many which padres do not hear about at all. Naturally the men concerned are distressed and disturbed. “We desire, therefore, to make a most earnest appeal to all girls engaged to soldiers on active service and to all wives of such soldiers to remember that their men are enduring danger, fatigue and discomfort on behalf of all of us. One of their greatest supports is the thought of their loved ones at home, their pride in protecting them and their hope of cheering letters from them. Impotence to Intervene “Bad news from home and the ! feeling of impotence to intervene might easily be responsible for many a nervous collapse. It is hard to believe that any of our women could be guilty of the cruelty and treachery of i betraying the very men who are risking their lives to protect them. “We know well that the break-up of homes due to the calling up of husbands and fathers has made life very difficult for many a wife, but how many wives could truly say that their hardships are as great as those which their absent husbands are called to bear? Soldiers’ wives and fiancees have it in their power by their faithful courage to send their men into battle gallant and highhearted or to break their morale by callousness and forgetfulness. Surely we do not need to remind our womenfolk that the campaign is being lost or won not only in the Middle East or the Pacific, but also in the town and countryside of New Zealand, not only by men on service abroad but by women at home.”