BRAVE NEW ZEALAND ERS.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2973, 16 January 1917, Page 5

BRAVE NEW ZEALAND ERS.

9 PRAISED BY BRITISH GENERALS AN ADDRESS TO THE "TWENTY-FIRSTS" In his addresses to the senior draft ■tor reinforcements in Trentham oami *he Chief of the General Staff, Colone C. M. Gibbon, 1.G.5., has always urg ed the men to do their lest to kcei lup the good name of New Zealand (Addressing tlie 21st Infantry and En gmeers at Trentham yesterday, Ji< fliioted extracts from letters from gen joralsat the front and from the Londoi ■"Times," which showed'that the Nev SJcaland Division in Franco had doni .excellent work. "Many of you have road," said Col ionel Gibbon,, "what Sir Douglas Haij Oias said' about our mon. I am givoi to nnderstand that the General is noi lavish in bestowing praise. He statet "that the Now Zealand Division had ac complished all the tasks set it, anc oven done more. The corps, commander Sir Henry Home, in writing to General Godley, said the same thing. Speaking of the New Zealandors, Genera' Horne said: "All ranks are evidently imbued iwith an excellent spirit. Officers anc mon were keen to attack, and went in (with the intention of winning, and consequently did succeed in every cast .while I remained in command of the corps." "Sir Henry Rawlnison and Sir Huibert Gough also spoke well of the division," continued Colonel Gibbon. General Rawlinson had written of them as follows: — ■ ■■.■'"■ "They , havo dons all that was asked of them, and no division has* done better." Sir Hubert Gough said: "What had struck everyone very touch, and particularly pleased them, was that tho division, though kept in the line for a very long time, made no hones about it,> and did not ask for relief. What I liked about the men was' that when an ord'er was fiiven no more was heard of it until it was reported that the order had been carried but." Second to None. The quotation from ' the London ■ : "Times" of November 11, 1916, read as follows:—" While all our armies'have fought so finely that no man would idare.to say that any troops wore better than the rest, there is no one who knows what is being achieved here, who in making a list of the foremost fighting regiments would not give the New Zealanders a place amongst them. (Whatever they havo been given to do they have done, and have never failed to inflict on the enemy losses out of all proportion to their own casualties. . In the fino part, they played in the capture of Flers, the Now Zealanders did faultless work. They were a tower of strength to the troops on their right hand and on their left, always doing what they wore expected to do, and always being where they ought to be." Colonel Gibbon hero stated that a division of the Guards, tlie finest troop in the-world, were fighting beside the New Zealand Division, and for our troops to be spoken of in these terms was something- to be proud of. Another general, writing from the Bomme, said: "What I want to tell you about is •the New Zealand Division. Their fighting power and endurance are beyond (words. No pen can describe their galiantry and fighting spirit. The Huns Jiad not a day's chance with them. 'Nothing recorded in tho pages of history was finor than the attack, repulse, and counter-attack, three timos, in five hours, in the Flers attaok of the nights of September 20 and 21, when the officers led the oxhausted remainder of the battalion forward, killed over 500 Huns, and took three machine-guns:," Colonel Gibbon concluded by wishing ihe 21st good luck and urging them to keep up the name of New-Zealand end raise it higher yet.