FRANCE'S DAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16265, 16 July 1918, Page 7

FRANCE'S DAY.

CELEBRATION IN PARIS. a. Cable.—Pros3. Association.—Copyright.) Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Recoived July loth. 7.25 p.m.) PARIS, July 14. The city is cri fete, celebrating tho of the Bastille. Hugo crowds witnessed a parade of allied troops, including a Czccho-Slovak detachment, before President Poincare. ' MESSAGE FROM SIR. DOUGLAS HAIG. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Keuter'a Telegrams.) (Received July 15th, 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, July 15. The Press Bureau states that Sir Douglas Haig sent the following raessage to President Poincare:— | "On tho occasion of your national anniversary 1 take pleasure in expressing, on behalf of tho British armies in france, our devoted admiration for the magnificent French Army. The rallying of the free nations during tho past year in the fight for civilisation and tbo closer cohesion of the Allies' military forcos, affords an assurance of victory." OBSERVANCE IN SYDNEY. (Received July 15th, 10.10 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 15. The city was gaily decorated with bunting, and a big parade of troops was held to celebrate tho Frcnch National Day. TRIBUTE OF WELLINGTON CITIZENS. (PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, July 15.

A public meeting was held in the Town Hall to-night, in celebration of France's national I'ote Day. The Mayor moved: —"That the citizens of Wellington, in meeting assembled, dosire upon this national festival of our glorious ally to record our deep sense of the immeasurable sacrifice made by tno French people in witiitjtanuing the greatest menace to liberty that ever threatened civilisation; our admiration for the matchless valour of her armies, and tho irrosistiblo determination of her civil population, which shows Jio sign of faltering, after four years of tne bloodiest war in History, and our profound conviction of ultimate success, in which the armies of the Allies will be crowned with glorious and imperishable victory, for over removing tne danger of free democracies being crushed l»y Prussian militarism." Sir James Allen alluded to tho published report of some remarks by the High Commissioner at Home, that our man power was diminishing, and hinting at the possibility of the Americans talcing the place of the New Zcalanders. Sir James Allen said we had entered the campaign with the intention of seeing it through, and he believed that the people of New Zealand were determined to do so. Ho believed that the men at the front wished to stay it out to the end, and they intended playing their part to the end. There was a great strain upon our man power and resources, but we. like our Allies, were prepared to meet those strains, and do and give all we could in this fight for freedom. Wo were glad to see the Americans coming in, and we hoped that they would come in such numbers that victory would bo certain. So far as he was concerned, he considered himself absolutely . pledged to keep the New Zealand division up to strength, aa long as we had, tho man power to do it. Here in New Zealand we wished to remove everything that might be offensive to the French poople. In Christchurch there tvero some Qerman bells in a church made of metal from material taken by tho Germans from the French in tho campaign of some years ngo. Those bells wore to be taken down, and unless tho French Consul wished them devoted to some other purpose, the bells would be melted down. The French people had untied their bonds immediately on the outbreak of war, and had gone into the fray and saved Europe. Colossal events hid tnken place since then, and one stood out of niErtorio interest—tho E&ttle'of the Marne.* At that battle 11 ""tosh soldiers were few, but th® "|°w struck, a&d struck veiy largely by the French armies, had caused the one ™y- t( 5 stagger and fall back. None could tol] when the end would come, could take comfort from the fact that the snirit of the French who struck_nt the Marne was the spirit of •Air Frencll people to-day. All the y* ® 8 , f ero g e ready to strike the filial blow. There cftuld be no doubt what tne end would be. After several other speakers had euloeised the part taken by the French in tne war, the motion was carried.