GRATITUDE OF CRETANS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 4

GRATITUDE OF CRETANS

Tribute Paid To N.Z. Servicemen

One of Major-General H. K. Kippenberger’s best memories of his return to Crete after the war was the public welcome he and his party were given at Galatas. He was greatly touched by the address of welcome read by Professor P. Catevenick, a Cretan who had studied in England and returned to spread learning in his native village.

The address reads:— “Welcome Honourable Field Marshal, officers and soldiers of the renovzned troops of New Zealand. “We feel grateful to you and proud for the honour you have conferred on us by your coming to visit our community and see the place where your valiant brothers, friends and countrymen lived in a brotherly intercourse, sharing with us our joys and sorrows, fought as heroes side by side with us; and some of them were unfortunately killed for the honour of the invincible army of the United Kingdom for a right cause and, permit us to say, for our freedom. * “It is here round this small but heroic village of Galatas that the hardest battle against the brutal 'invaders was fought, at which the New Zealanders displayed unsurpassable heroism, valour and self-sacrifice, having added more brilliancy to your glorious country. “We cherish the memory of your compatriots and you that their relics lie not in a foreign land, for we have, against* the strict prohibition of the barbarous conquerors, tended and trimmed their graves, decorated them in the dark and in secret with flowers; and our good priest Rev. Basil Roumeliotakis kept a record and preserved for their families everything that was theirs.

“When at last, thanks to the great victories ofjtfre Allies, their filthy feet could spoil no longer our ground and their blood-stained hands to torture and execute us, we congregated in our church to give thanks to God for our deliverance, to pray for the relief of their souls, and ask God to console and enliven the spirits of their parents, brothers, wives and children. “Believe us, honourable gentlemen, that our gratitude to the great and glorious nation of Great Britain will be everlasting."