N.Z. LUNCHEON

Hokitika Guardian, 25 October 1928, Page 5

N.Z. LUNCHEON

TENDERED GENERAL RICHARDSON. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). (Received this day at noon.) LONDON, Oct, 24. The New Zealand Association gave a luncheon to General Richardson at the Savoy Hotel. Sir James Parr,in proposing the toast congratulated the Association upon tire large representative gathering at its first function. He said- it was a fitting tribute to General Richardson. As Commander of the New Zealand Forces, he was no unsympathetic martinet. He was rather a warm-hearted friend of the lowliest soldiers. iTis Samoan administration had been cruelly attacked, but the League of Nations had disproved the slanders and lies which were broadoasted throughout the rvorld by a small coterie of, beach agitators. Richardson -always adhered to the spirit of the mandate in befriending the natives. He had mapped out a progressive educational scheme, and had vanquished the dread yaws of hookworm diseases.

General Richardson replying considered the occasion a tribute to New Zealand’s dead soldiers, rather than to himself. The world ought to do its utmost to prevent a recurrence of the slaughter of young men, whose graves in France saddened and depressed, him. He tried in Samoa and elsewhere to befriend the underdog. New Zealand’s administration had been so successful that the natives, formerly a dying race, were now increasing.

The Association at the instance ot Sir Pember Reeves, decided to cable Sir C. P. Skerrett its warmest sympathy, and the hope that he would surmount the suffering he has undergone.