BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1949 WELCOME, FRONTIERSMEN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 95, 3 June 1949, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1949 WELCOME, FRONTIERSMEN

Tomorrow the annual Dominion conference of the Legion of Frontiersmen opens at Whakatane. The Beacon takes this opportunity of welcoming delegates to the district. Though it is forty-five years old, the Legion is not wellknown to all of us, because its service is often of an unobtrusive kind, and its uniform is not seen often enough to make it thoroughly familiar. However, it is doubtful if there is any organisation with higher ideals and greater patriotism. The Legion was founded in 1904 by Captain Roger Pocock, of the Royal Canadian NorthWest Mounted Police, after his retirement from that force, and the influence of the “Mounties” can be seen in the Legion’s present uniform. Captain Pocock was assisted by Colonel D. P. Driscoll, D. 5.0., of Driscoll’s Scouts, whom he met in London after the South African War

Qualifications for membership were that Frontiersmen had to be “men of Empire”, men who had fought and worked to the end that the British Empire might continue to flourish as a united and powerful force for good in world affairs. The emphasis, however, is not on war service, or preparation for it. The basic idea behind the Legion is that, come peace, come war, tnere is always plenty of constructive service to be done by men with the welfare of the Empire at heart. We continue to use the word £ Empire” advisedly, because we believe that is the word Frontiersmen would like to see us use.

Said a previous annual report, “It is essential that members of the Legion of Frontiersmen should maintain their identity and usefulness, in order to uphold their British birthright. If youth and age, energy and experience, pull together nothing can stand in the way of progress. “To this,end the Legion, as a humble part of the Englishspeaking world, is united . and determined to help in one way or another to defend a way of life we all in common find to be good. There can be no turning back. The struggle is one of life or death—no half-measures are possible. We must give all, dare all, and endure all.” Many famous Empire builders have been members of the Legion, some of the familiar names that come to mind being those of Lord Kitchener, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Captain _ R. F. Scott, Lord Haldane, Field Marshal Lord French, K.C.M.G., and the Earl of Lonsdale. Five cf New Zealand’s V.C.’s w~ere Frontiersmen.

Wherever one sees the Legion’s uniform, one knows that the man wearing it is a man British from his boot-soles to the peaked crown of his hat, and sufficiently proud of it to want to show his pride of birth in useful, unselfish service. . We are proud to welcome such men to our town, and we trust they will go away with memories of warm greetings and a successful conference.