Tolerance urged

Addressing a meeting of townspeople at Kaitangata on Monday evening, Mr J.

M. Innes expressed the hope that not one of our returned soldiers, or those yet to return home from the war, would be harshly condemned for any act of waywardness or lapse from good conduct. He said the severe and trying conditions under which they had lived at the ‘‘front’’ had almost completely wrecked the nervous systems and constitutions of many of our strongest and best lads until they were not responsible for their actions. Their cases deserved not condemnation but rather a kind, patient, helpful, guiding hand to lead them back to the conditions of life and health they enjoyed previous to their going into the shock of battle and all its evils. We must never forget that we continue to enjoy our liberties and privileges through the wrecked nerves and broken constitutions of those men who could not withstand all the temptations placed before them to fall from the standard of their previous good behaviour. A burst of applause followed Mr Innes’s remarks. — ODT, 7.11.1918.