NEW ZEALAND'S TRIBUTE TO FRANCE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16264, 15 July 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S TRIBUTE TO FRANCE.

Now at the crisis of her fate, never did she, France, lift her head more nobly, and never did slie fling back a chaliengo with a clearer voice. . Her Array is still whole, strong, attd utterly unbroken. What of the nation? Tho civilian sufferers, the homeless, the war victims, the children, tho agedenduring without murmur, magnificent in their firm patience, defiant in their determination to uphold _ Truth and Liberty, and win for us Victory. We cannot measure Prance s sacrifice, • but we can do something to minister to her needs. Our debt of gratitude can never be paid. To France tvo owe our safety. ' Let us join in sending her a token of our affectionate admiration, a proof of our rare and concern for her eufforerS. Our splendid Ally needs our help now. Will you add to our tributer , The following subscriptions have been roceived: — . . ,>:• £ s. d. =

Subscriptions will bo gratefullv received by the lion, treasurer, T. D. Oomloll, c.o. Fletcher, Humphreys, and Co.. Cnthedrnl Rfiunro. This list wUI remain open until Saturday, tho 20th inst. 8

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TRESS."

Sir, —I am afraid that it is almost) forgotten now thit l£>ng before the war broke out the British Navy and the British nation owed a debt of gratitude to the French Navy. When the Delhi was wrecked in Decomber, 1911, with members of the English Royal Family on board, a French warship stood by and rendered signal servico by saving many English lives at the cost of the lives of several members of lier own crow. These brave Frenchmen cheerfully "jeoparded their lives in tho high places of danger," and lost them to save the lives of English men and women. It seems to me that the present is not an inappropriate time to remind ourselves of this gallant service. Every Frenchman who died on his feet at Verdun with the immortal words "Us no passeront pas" on his lips, died for New Zealand, too. With nis life, and by his death, he barred the passage of the Gorman brutes to tho homes of our wives and sistors and daughters here as truly as he barred them from, the fair homes of _ Franco. Shall we not then, at this time, remember the wivea and sisters and children ho has left behind as a sacred trust to us who li f . e in unbroken peace, the richer for their loss, so far away from tho "noise of tho captains and the shouting" that wa hardly realise that the Angel of Death is abroad, except thoso of us indeed who. through losses of their own, have had their ears opened to hear "the rustling of his wings?" T& these I would ask to be allowed to say, "Let! our own losses mako our hearts all the more tender to these who have been left behind like ourselves; left behind by bravo men who fought and fell by the side of those we, too, have loved and lost in the same great and glorious cause."—Yours, etc., F. W. HASLAM

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