22nd REINFORCEMENTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2991, 31 January 1917, Page 6

22nd REINFORCEMENTS

* ■ OFFICERS ENTERTAINED. A gathering in honour of the officers of the- 22nd Reinforcements was held at the Grand Hotel last evening, Captain John Keir presiding. Amongst those present were: The Hon. J. Allen, General Robin, His Worship the Mayor, Colonel Mac Donald, Colonel Potter, Colonel Andrew, Major Newcombe, Major Mounsey, and Captain Bell, and most of the principal officers of 'the, Reinforcements in camp. ■ In, proposing the toast of the Headquarters Staff, the chairman said that at the outbreak of the war the British nation was not a military nation in the ordinary accepted sense of the term. The best it could dp for foreign service was a quota of 150,000 men, which earned, when it landed on foreign soil, the sarcasm of the Kaiser, expressed as "General French's contemptible little Army." That Army and its deeds was an object lesson, and earned the greatest of rewards for the British General Staff who had prepared it. The glorious example it had given us was forever enshrined in the annals of the Empire. Its deeds must inspire all, and to emulate it was the hone and ambition of this and every unit that this Dominion had sent forth. As an old volunteer officer, the handicaps of long ago in peace times were now being contrasted with our present system. ■ An aggregate of soldiers and teachers of soldiers, from the same General Staff that had prepared "the contemptible little Army," were now at the service of tliose who wished'to serve their country. And ho looked buck on his last seven months experience in camp as the most educative of his life. The warm hand of com-radeship-was always extended, and the sympathetic word of encouragement aiid Guidance met him on all hands from the General Staff. Some had said that the 22nds were a good reinforcement—, others had said it was one of if not. the best. Bo that as it may, he felt sure that the General Staff for training at Featherston and Trcnthaui were responsible for whatever good might ho in them —and it gave him the greatest pleasure in placing on record his appreciation of all those he had come in contact with in both military camps, and he felt that he voiced the opinion of' all who were connected with thV draft in saying so. The toast, would hardly be complete without reforence to Colonel the Honourable Jas. Allen. As Minister of Defpiino tho area test burden ever thrust upon a Minister of the Crown in , this Dominion had lippii laid upon him. How he had responded fo it was history.

■ 'Numerous other toasts wore proposed during tlio evening.