REUNION AT NOUMEA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 189, 9 May 1944, Page 5

REUNION AT NOUMEA

N.Z. Soldiers Of 1914-1918 N.Z.E.F. Official News Service. PACIFIC H.Q., May 4. Brigadier A. E. Conway, AdjutantGeneral of the New Zealand Army Forces, is on a tour of inspection of the Pacific area in which New Zealand, forces are stationed. He is accompanied by Colonel E. R. McKillop,' DeputyCommissioner of Defence Construction. Thirty years ago, when a force of New Zealanders landed at Noumea on their way to wrest Samoa from the Germans, there was a small group of soldiers ot not very significant rank —"one was a captain, two were privates, and tea lot”*!* 1

was a signalman. The captain is now Lieutenant-General Edward I uttick, Chief of Staff of the New Zealand horces, who has already been to New Caledonia in this will’i and has met one of the piivates and the signaller. This last weekend, however, saw another of the privates, now Colonel E. K. McKillop, Deputy-Commissioner ot Defence Construction, meet the signaller, Brigadier W. W. Dove, who is now Officer in Charge of Administration, 2nd N.Z.E.F., I.P. The other private, who has’still" to keep his rendezvous here, is now Air Vice-Marshal Sir Arthur ’ Coningham. f Colonel McKillop has the distinction of being the first Now Zealand soldier to enter the Pacific zone in this war. He was formerly in charge of defence construction work at Fiji.