GREAT TRIBUTE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 71, 6 October 1939, Page 7

GREAT TRIBUTE

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS STORY OF LAST WAR As an indication of the high standard members o'- the Special Military Force will have to strive Cor if tliey arc to maintain the tradition established by the New Zealandei's who .served overseas (luring the Great War, Colonel E. D.5.0., when speaking to the Special Force oHicers and non-commissioned officers at Trentham read the Following extract from an address delivered in Wellington in 1922 by Mr F. H. Bakewcll, M.A., Chief Inspector o4 Schools: — "But my intention is not to say so much about Avhat we thought of ourselves as about Avhat others thouglit of us. Shortly after the con elusion of the war a great function took place in Paris. Thousands of young recruits who had joined the colours of the regiments quartered in Paris were assembled for the pur--I pose of taking the oath of military ? _ . . * 1. . T-» i."l' m.

service to the Republic. The officer in command of the garrison, a distinguished general was there to speak to them on loyalty and patriotism and duty to their country. Tn drawing illustrations and examples for such an appeal to young French soldiers, just think what a magnificent field the general had at his disposal—the most brilliant military history of the world —Joan of Arc, Turenne, the glories of the Grand Monarch, Napoleon, Marengo i Austerlitz, Jena —and, if these were not enough, surely the spirit ol ! France had shone forth from a hundred fields in the great struggle that had only just ended. EXPLOITS UNEQUALLED. "But he made no mention of these. 'Young soldiers of the Republic.' he said, 'before I begin my address, I wish to read to you an vsrmy* order recently issued from Headquarters,' and th : .s is what he read out: Paris, November 29, DID. Army Orders. The President of ihtv Council of the Ministry of War mentions the' name of the following P>:itish officer, Major-General Si" Andrew of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who has led a splendid division to countless victories. Its exploits have not been equalled, and its reputation was such that on the arrival of the division on the Sommc battlefield, during the most critical days of March, 1918, the flight of the inhabitants immediately ceased. The division covered itself with fresh glory during the battles of the Anere at the Sambre at Puescoux

'11/ nnj otunui ' . C;L A. au Mont, Bapaunie, Crevecoeur, an; Le Quesnoy. Given and by order of the Presl dent of. the Council of the Ministry of War. (Syd) BOEKER (Colonel), Adjutan't-General of the Cabinet "Now, T ask you/' the Genera' went on 'to take notice of one fact: that on the arrival on the battleficlc 1 of thesn soldiers the flight of the inhabitants immediately It wa.< indeed one of the mos f critipal neriods of the war? The line had been Ivoken, the» enemv was pressing through to ar.tic'pated v'ctory. and the unfortunate people of the countryside were florin rt in terror from the horrors of the Boche invasion. WHO ARE THESE MEN? "Figure to yourselves what it all meant. The road crowded with fugitives old men, despairing and weeping women and children, bearing with them such few household treasures as they could drag along. Then the arrival of troop trains with reinforcements—company after comnan v of lvhaki men detrained and hurried into the firing line "Qui sont ces gens?'' (Who &i"e these men), the peoole asked, and it wa? the flight was stayed. The officer who was directing the evacuation sent his aide de camp to inrjuire the reason. He enme back. "General," he said, "the peoole sav that they «ro the soldiers from "Mew Zealand, 'et tout va bien.' and all's well. Thev will snor> be bsek in their homesin fact, they are getting ready to return now." "Ye.s such was the rtpuation of these men for valour and manhood, and conduct, that youv war-stricken countrymen know that they could confide the'r £oo:ls and their chatthn> lives, and th<~> honour of their women to their safe-keeping. T can hold un to you no finer model as soldiers than was shown by the mm that a little nation iri a faroff island of the Pacific to fh" aid of France ir., her hour of' peril."