TROPHIES OF WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1931, Page 3

TROPHIES OF WAR

MANY UNIQUE MEMENTOES,

NA VAL RESERVISTS MEET

LONDON, November 18

More than 1,000 officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve attended on Saturday the annual reunion organised by .the Royal Naval Division Association at, the Crystal Palace.,

The programme extended over 12 hours. The war trophies exhibited were of great interest. Over 500 in number, they represented all the war activities of the Volunteer Reserve,

There were memories of Antwerp and of the various phases of internment in Holland; many mementoes of Gallipoli, including the raft used by Lieut-enant-Colonel’Freyberg, V.C., when he swam ashore and placed flares close to the Bulair lines in April, 1915; the replica of “Drake’s Drum,” used in many actions in France and marked by many bloodstains.

VINDICTIVE’S FUNNEL. There was a piece of Vindictive’s funnel after the engagement at Zeebrugge; a Russian ikon presented by Russian officers to their commander; exhibits recalling the beginning of the Volunteer Reserve, training at the Crystal Palace, the general activities of the reserve, and “after the.war.” There were several expressions of regret that this fine collection of trophies could not have a permanent home. Mr Winston Churchill, in an address, said that the deeds of the Royal Naval Division upon the Gallipoli Peninsula had been well chronicled and would never be forgotten as long as deeds of valour and discipline were prized in the British Army or in the British Fleet. The Royal Naval Division played their part well and it was not their fault that an immense abridgement of slaughter and torment was not achieved for all nations, foes as. well as friends.

“FURNACE OF WAR.” “Keep together,” added Mr Cburch,il. “Do not let the hands which are .joined full apart. Do not let those sacrifices and associations which grew in the white flame of the furnace of war burn out into cold, embers in the. years of peace. These are the. deeds of history and of romance that have united you. They are among the greatest that- have ever been performed; Whether in. Gallipoli or in France, the reputation of the Royal Naval Division was h’ot irifei*i<R,to that of any—even of tile finest divisions of tlra British Army that were employed *in the Great War. Keep the spirit of comradeship, of mutual aid and assistance, -alive in your hearts. Keep also the resolve that our country, which bore all the brunt of the Great I War, should not lie deprived in clays and years of peace of her position in the world.”