NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 238, 5 July 1944, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

Pride "Expressed By Colonel Waite It did uot matter how soft they might appear to have become, when they were put to. the test there was something about New Zealanders and something about the New Zealand Division that made them just a bit different from any other division, said the commissioner for the National Patriotic Fund Board in the Middle East, Colonel F. Waite, speaking at a gathering held in his honour in Wellington yesterday. It made one proud to know that he came from tiie same stock, he added. The people ot New Zealand, he thought, were very proud of the men serving overseas, but he sometimes wondered whether some o£ the people were worthy of those who were doing the fighting. There were some people who were better off now than ever before, and that did not apply merely to certain sections of workers. He had been invited to speak at a welcome home to a small party of servicemen recently, and he had told the audience that he wanted them to realize that the men who had returned had put their bodies between the country they loved and its people and the enemies of New Zealand; that it was idle work of the men in uniform that '.had kept tile Germans and the Japanese away from New Zealand, aud had allowed the people to go on living in tiie way they were. He had also stated that he hoped that would be remembered now aud in the years to come. Colonel Waite spoke of the value of the welfare funds (being built up by the patriotic organization for the after-care of service, personnel. This ho described as work which perhaps was more important than the service given during the war. “We are getting to the stage,” he added, “when something might happen all of a sudden, nnd the war might be oyer before we realize it. 1 am satisfied that the organization that has been built up will be of even greater value in the days to come than it is today.” His four years ns commissioner for the Patriotic Fund Board, continued Colonel Waite, had been full o£ interest. He thanked the board for the confidence placed in him, and referred to the cooperation received from officers and men of the Second N.Z.E.F. in carrying, out tiie patriotic activities. General Freyberg was the keenest on welfare work of anyone he had met, but the fact, remained that it was the people in the first instance who governed the extent of the patriotic effort; without, the money they provided tile work could not be done.

Mr. Perry, M.L.C., deputy-chairman of the patriotic Fund Board, said that Colonel Waite had done a magnificent job overseas, and since his return had devoted a great, part of his furlough to a Dominion tour iu the interests of tho patriotic movement. His service had been recognized by the award of tho 0.8. E., and advice had now been received of his promotion from lieufenaiit-colonet to full colonel. Not content, with the part he hud played in the war of 1914-18, in which ho had won a lighting D. 5.0., ho had <‘O|)ie forward again in this war. and had doue a magnificent, job. Mr. Perry, who announced that. Colonel Waite would 'be returning overseas, convoyed to hint tho best: wishes of the gathering. The service given by Colonel Waite as patriotic comniisisotier was also eulogized by the Hon. Adam Hamilton. Those present at. rhe gathering included representatives of the National Patriotic Fund Board and tho Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council, and also a number of close friends of Colonel Waite.