NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1917, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Lieut Eric Reeves, eldest son of

Mr E. K. Reeves, Hill Street, Wellington, has again been wounded at the front. His father was informed that he was wounded on June 7th during the gi’eat struggle at Messines. Lieut Reeves is the son of Mrs Reeves (nee Farrell) formerly of Hokitika.

Lieut R. J. Collyns, who has boon awarded the Military Cross, is ayounger brother of Mr J. V. Collyns, of King’s Collegs, Auckland, and an old boy of Nelson College. Before going on active service he was a civil engineer at Greymouth, where his wife reside 3.

The marriage of Major RichardLloyd George, the Premier’s son, and Miss Roberta McAlpine, was a very j quiet affair. It took place at Bath. Miss McAlpine is a very pretty girl, and a keen sportswoman. She is fond of all open-air exercises, and enjoys nothing better than a brisk motor ride. Major Lloyd George is only 27, but it didn’t take him long to win promotion in the Army. He had a distinguished career at Cam-,, bridge, where he passed in the Engineering Tripos. Shortly after the outbreak of war ho enlisted in the Port mad oc Battalion of the Carnarvonshire., Territorials. On obtaining a commission be was transferred to tbe London Welsh, and subsequently obtained a captaincy in the 19th Welsh Regiment. ,

Lieutenant W. J. Melville, C.M.R., son of Mr W, Melville, M.V.0., formerly .Chief of the Secret Police of Great Britain—is staying with his father at Clapham Common. He

left New Zealand ’with the Sixth ( Reinforcelhents, and has been with ( the Mounted Brigade ever since. Though troubled with an injured ' knee, he has managed to get through , ■ all the fighting in Sinai Peninsula. | He is to be invalided back to New Zealand after a month’s leave here. At the battle of Rafa, Lieutenant 1 Melville acted as orderly officer to Major-General Sir Henry • Chau el, i C. 0., Anzac Division, and had a nar- j row escape while carrying despatches, j his horse being shot under him, and though himself struck with shrapnel, ’ he was not wounded. Lieutenant ‘ Melville secretary of the Panne- j virke -Hunt while in Hawke’s Bay, ; and is well known in the South Island j also as a keen amateur actor and j singer. At Lemnos he met his only ‘ brother, Major Melville, M.S.C , ; whom he had not seen for 12 years, j Mr Melville enlisted from Greymouth.

Having returned from active service to the position of InspectorGeneral of the Commonwealth Forces, Major-General Legge lias recently been emphasising the need for rein, forcements. “ Every battalion has to be used as a battalion,” he said- *« Army commanders have not time to worry whether a battalion is up to its full strength. They employ it as a battalion of a thousand men If ii: is only strong, then each of our boys in that battalion has to do two men’s work, in circumstances and under conditions unparalleled in our history Here in Australia we pride ourselves upon our democracy, our institutions, our Labour organisations, our unions. Above all things we despise the black-legger. Are we going to black-leg upon our boys in the fighting line ? For that is what the refusal to enlist actually means.”