VISIT TO THE FRONT.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1917, Page 3

VISIT TO THE FRONT.

♦ Sir Joseph Ward’s Reflections. Our Men Invincible. London, Nov. 21. Sir Joseph Ward has contributed to the “ Daily Mail ” a brief article concerning his recent visit with Mr Massey to the British front in Flanders. He writes: — “ Rather more than a week before the delivery of the latest effective blow by the British Army on the Ancre I enjoyed the opportunity of a visit to the British front, which provided me with ineffaceable memories. “ What has occurred since my return has done no more than justify the impressiou I formed on my visit, from which 1 returned with a feeling of the utmost confidence. I thought I was confident before I started on my tour; yet at every turn I saw things which came to me in the nature of a revelation. To sum up my immediate conclusions, I will use one sentence. All the Allied countries must ensure that full reinforcements shall be kept up, with an oversupply of munitions of war; given these indispensable necessities, and one can leave the rest to our grand generals and armies with the fullest confidence.

“It is as unfortunate as it if necessary that a privileged visitoi snch as myself may not tell ont tithe of the wonders he has seen, oi give the most convincing of his reasons for belief in the certainty of s great and complete victory. I car only- say on this score that if I had not seen for myself I could nevei have realised the meaning of the Allied effoit on the western front. “ The visit of Mr Massey and myself was made with the object oi seeing our New Zealand troops fighting in the trenches. When I write of them, I do so with the knowledge that they only display the same splendid spirit which inspires their kith and kin with- whom they are fighting side by side; the grand sol diers of the Motherland and of the other overseas dominions. “ Standing within some hundreds of yards of the German line, I saw 4000 of our New Zealand men come out of the actual fighting. They had not been relieved for twenty-three days ; during the whole of that time they had been subjected to the terrible weather which had marked the fighting of the last month or more.

WEARY BUT UNBEATEN. “ Merely to live in the open trenches in their permanently-soaked clothes for so long is a feat of endurance which, before the war, would have been said to be remarkable in any man. Yet these weary men, almost stunned by battle shock, strode past us in high spirits and with cheerful greetings. “In a large town in France I saw a hospital which had been equipped in New Zealand, and provided with doctors and nurses, who are all New Zealanders. It filled me with pride and satisfaction to find the men under treatment, there were men of all the races fighting for the Allied cause on the western front. I little thought when that hospital was equipped that I would one day see in it the symbol of the unity which marks all the nations banded together in the fight for freedom. J‘l had also the opportunity of realising the immense traffic carried on the roads between the coast and tho battle line and of seeing how admirably it is regulated and controlled. Words can give no idea of the effect produced by the countless strings of motor lorries involved in the work of transporting food, munitions and other necessaries to the men who are fighting.

ALLIES UNION OP EFFORT. “The work of keeping up the roads over which this proceeds, while it is actually going on, is in itself a surprising task. Throughout the British area of fighting it is one of the many things which devolves upon the wonderful British Army. Wherever I went 1 saw difficulties that had been apparently insuperable mastered by the wise devices improvised for overcoming them. At every turn I was confronted by surprising evidence of the union of effort among the Allies, and of its invigor-; ating effect. I was enable to measure the huge volume of spade work that had been clone ; and in the thoroughness of its performance I found the finest assurance of what is yet to come, when the more showy tasks are attempted.

“ My optimism mast be estimated by the fact that I saw our Army under the most discouraging circumstances that were possible. The spectacle of men at work waist deep in seas of mud is not in itself inspiring, but when they work as those men did, and display suoh spirit and cheer, one can only say, ‘ These men are invincible.’ “ If anything could rob such men of the ultimate victory for which they are straining, it would be a failure of those who are not in France supply them with the necessary things I have already specified.”