A FAREWELL TRIBUTE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 3 August 1901, Page 4

A FAREWELL TRIBUTE.

General Sir Hector MacDonald, in his farewell order to the Scottish Volunteer companies who had served in his brigade, pays a high tribute to their soldierly qualities. “It cannot fail,” ho says, “to prove a source of gratification to you to know that your devotion to duty, your anxiety to learn, your conduct under fire, your ready adoption to your altered circumstances, and the manner in which you identified yourselves with your battalions, and conducted yourselves as part and parcel of them, soon gained you the respect of your brigadier, the confidence of your commanding officer, and the friendship of the whole brigade, into whose existence you were completely and gladly absorbed. Your own company organisation was preserved under your own officers and you formed an integral portion of the historical battalions which you joined. You are now about to proceed home and 1 am afforded the opportunity of placing on record my high appreciation of your patriotism in ressponding to your ‘ country’s call,’ your gallantry in action, your endurance in the field, and your invariable good conduct and cheerfulness in camp and quarters. Together with your comrades of the Line and Militia, you have endured the hardships and sufferings inseparable from war with the utmost fortitude and without a murmur. Equally with your other comrades, you have taken your full shares of all duties in camp, on the line of march, and on outpost and. detachment, having won for yourselves by your soldierly qualities the right to do so. You have marched and fought under trying circumstances in burning heat, in biting cold, and in pouring rain, always without shelter, sometimes with little food, often with your clothes in rags, and with boots and shoes lacking soles, yet with a devotion to duty and a sense of discipline rarely equalled and seldom excelled.”