NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2325, 6 September 1921, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS.

“THE MODEL LITTLE ARMY.”

In the course of his speech at the civic reception given to him in Auckland, Lord Northcliffe referred in warm, appreciative, and obviously sincere terms to the services of Now Zealand soldiers in the war. Lord Northcliffe said he had been determined to come to New Zealand since his visit, to the headquarters of the New Zealand division in France, when it suffered very much more heavily than the newspapers were allowed to say at that time. He found the division, as he stated in the book he afterwards wrote, the model little army of the war. It was perfectly officered, perfectly equipped, and asked nobody for anything, hut it consisted of young men who became conspicuous in Europe for their modest bearing and patience under suffering. (Applause.) Those at Home were most profoundly grateful for this contribution New Zealand gave, not merely for the numbers, for the numbers was as many as could be given, but for the heartening thought and the companionship of it. (Applause.) He remembered the Italians asked the British to send troops to them, and they did so, not for the sake of the numbers, but of the companionship. And so it was that the New Zealand troops came, “but you were of us,” he added, “and that was a different thing.” He went on to refer to the hell of August, September, October, and November, 1914, when the nation was unprepared for war, and when he was nearly put in gaol for revealing the fact that our soldiers had no shells —(applause)— when he was told it would let the Germans know, as if the Germans didn’t know before. (Applause.) When the New Zealand boys arrived they received a welcome he would have liked those present to have heard. It would have done every mother in the Inill good to see the welcome her boy got in Europe. One must not forget the nursing sisters, who took their place even in llie firing line. (Applause). We sometimes forgot the great dangers of I lie medical service at Hie war. (Applause.) Almost the most dangerous thing ho did.was to spend a day in a dressing station. It would have done all present good to know what New Zealand’s contribution did towards stimulating the people of Britain in the very great periods of depression they went through. “The greatest thing you have done for our King and our little country,” Lord Northcliffe concluded, “was the sending of your sweet and splendid boys to France, and I grieve that so many of them will never return.” (Applause).