LORD JELLICOE.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1919, Page 4

LORD JELLICOE.

IyOi d Jellicoc, iu the course of his reply at the civic welcome at Wellington on Wednesday made it plain that while not unappreciative of the hospitality which he knew was to be so freely lavished upon them, the visit ol the New Zealand was : essentially a business visit. Whilst not seeking to diminish the pleasure which the citizens of the Dominion would be good enough to confer upon them, all the time at the back ul his mind and at the back of the minds of his staff would be the fact that there was work to be done here. The officers and men ol the ship would be grateful indeed for any hospitality shown them, and he only asked that he and the members of his staff should be left certain days to carry out the work they had been sent here to undertake. He did not forget that New Zealand was the first oversea portion of the British Rmpire which had a Navy of its own. He did not then refer to H.M.S. New Zealand, but to the four little cargo steamers which had been fitted out aud made oulietproof bv the New Zealand Government in 1563. Then, again, in 1909, New Zealand had led the way with the gift of H.M.S. New Zealand. (Roud applause.) As New Zealand had had a great, long, and lasting connexion with the Royal Navy, from the days of Captain Cook to its first Dieutenant-Governor and its. second Governor who were both naval men, they in H.M.S. New Zealand felt that iu coming to New Zealand they were coming home. (Applause.) They all had a deep appreciation of the interest New Zealand had always taken in matters naval, always appreciating the vital necessity for British sea supremacy. Men of the Royal Navy had had intimate association with the heroes of the New Zealand Army in the early days of Gallipoli, and iu those days between the two branches of the Service there had grown up a spirit of comradeship which would never die. Thus again he could say: “In coming to New Zealand we are coming home ; we are coming to our comrades.” (Applause.) The men ol the Royal Navy sympathised with those in the Dominion who had lost their loved ones, but there were words which appealed to him as the very best which could be used under such circumstances, and the}' were: “ The glory does not die, the grief is past.” (Roud and prolonged applause.) Tbe reception concluded by the singing of the National Anthem and cheers for Admiral Rord Jellicoe, his officers, aud men.