"D" BATTERY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 190, 1 May 1918, Page 8

"D" BATTERY

ANNUAL SMOKE CONCERT ■ INTERESTING SPEECHES Tho annual snioko concert of the D Battery wnu hold last evening in the "Charley's Aunt" Club rooni, which wad filled to tno doors with fresh-faced young mon in khaki, who looked splendidly lit niter the year's training the/ have gone through. Major A. J. Petherick, O.C. the Buttery, occupied the diair. He was supported by Colonel (i. 1". C. Campbell (O.C. Coast Defences), Lieutenant Petersen, of the N.2.U.A., Captain G. N. Goldie, and Lieutenants Gauntlet, Gendall, iind Cnmeron. Tho toasts honoured included "Tho King," "Our Comrades at the Front," proposed by Lieutenant Gauntlet and responded to by Lieutenant Gendall. In proposing the "Navy and Army," Captain G. Goldio paid a splon. did tribute to tho 'first hundred thousand," nho succeeded in stoniininjr the tush of the Huns across Belgium, and whose deeds of valour were up to tho best traditions of England in war. In reply, Lieutenant Petersen eulogised the gallantry and resource of tho British Navy, which for three hundred years— from Gronville, who had foughty fifty ships with his little one—had fought hundreds of .battles successfully. And io-day that Navy v;as still supreme. Without its aid they could not hope to win the war. Ho also epoke of the deathless valour of tho "contemptible little army" of 19U, the spirit of which permeated every branoh of the great iirnir now in Prance, the army wnicli would yot fight gloriously to victory. Colonel <i. ]?. C. Campbell proposed tho health of tho D Battery. In doing co he said that '.ho had been connected with the battery more or loss eince 1887, and during that time must have rubbed shoulders with many officers and N.C.O.'e connected wtih the battery. He had seen companies rise- to importance and dcclino again, according to their officers being good, bad, or indifferent, but the battery had nover done its work other than efficiently, and had always done well those dutiee the Defence Department had called upon, it to do. The artillery services of thp Dominion had always been well served.' Only the other day he visjtcd the forts with Sir Hobert Anderson, irho, after seoinjj the mun at work, had said: "You have some smart fellowa here," to which he had replied: "Havo you ever seen an artilleryman who was not smart?" And *he visitor had to acknowledge that ho had. not. Artillerymen were necessarily rainrt because of the nature of the work lhey had to do, and young fellows going in for that branch of the Service very soon became enthusiastic owing to the interesting character of tho duties entailed upon them. Hβ did not know how many of the D Battery had gono to tho front, but ho knew a great many had gone, and he was auru that they had maintained tho traditions of tho hattery, which had always been good. There was no more important branch of tho Service engaged in the war at the present time, and with aircraft and tanks to counter, their duties were more vitally important than ever. On their work depended the destinies of the nation, and theirs was the most important part in attack and defence, particularly the latter. Ho did not 6ay'that to the detriment of other branches of the Servioe, for they must havo'just as much appreciation of the men with the mules who brought up the ammunition, and thp men ahead in the trencheF, the engineers who burrowed belo-rc the earth, and the airmen who rained destruction from above. They must recognise that they were all brothors-in-arms, fighting for the one supreme end. He proposed "Tho Battery," which always had been, and he hoped .always would be, a credit to Wellington. Major Petherick responded in fitting terms, referring to iho Fatisfactorr work dono dnrinif the year and the good spirit that it had been done in. The entertaining talent was of>a hiph eniality. The performers were Messrs. 11. 13. Wood (who waa .honoured with a double encore). Norman Aitken (who was shown n similar mark «i apTw'ifinn), Charles Moore, P. Blandford. L. Hanlon, Peek, G. Hmichen. and E. Sievers. Mr. J. M'Loughlin presided at the piano.