WAR TROPHIES.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 16 May 1919, Page 4

WAR TROPHIES.

THE METHOD : OP DISTRIBUTION,

■'Many appljchtiona have been received.by. the Minister of Defence from local'bodies and private individuals the Dominion' for war trophies, and as there is evidently some misunderstanding regarding the system of distribution, the Defence ' Department has issued the following- statement of the principles governing the matter: —

Trophies captured by units must, in . the iirßt instance, be handed over to the Imperial authorities. Each unit subsequently submits claims for all articles captured, such- claims being doaltr with by a special committee, which in due course allots the trophies to the

various units. 1 Each regiment or territorial area in I New Zealand embraces one to five of i the principal towns in the particular area. Thus Auckland City is the territorial' area of the 3rd (Auckland) Regiment and Ist Battalion of jST.SS. Rifle Brigade; Wellington City the head: quarters of the sth (Wellington).Regiment and.2nd Battalion N.Z. Rifle Brigade; Christchurch City the lst ; (Can-, terbury)- Regiment and 3rd Battalion X.Z. Rifle Brigade; Duncdin City the ■lth (Ofago) Regiment, and 4th Battalion N.Z. Kifle Brigade. Similarly, provincially, the territorial regimental area of the 15th (North Auckland) Regiment embraces Whaugarei, Darga- J ville. Helcnsvilie, and Kohukohu; the 7th (Wellington and West Coa't) Regiment embraces Wunganui,.Marton, l'al-_ merston North and* Eeildiug: the 13th (Xelffin and West Coast) Regiment— Bangiora, Kaiapdi, Holetika,. Beef ton; tlia°loth (North O:r.;jo) Regiment— Oaim.ru, Mo'sgiei, Cromwoi!, Duntroon. On the formation of Expeditionary I'ofee in M--, ea.di battalion of infantry u ;i s composed of four companies, one company being drawn Erom each territorial area. Each regiment of mounted rifles was similarly constituted by squadroi - drawn from monnidd rifle territorial areas. It is, therefore, but natural that the personnel of each unit in the field.and their relatives in Ncw Zealand are concerned that trophies captured by each unit should be distributed to their own territorial areas throughout the Dominion. The principle in governing the distribution of war trophies in the Dominion is, therefore, that all trophies captured by the troops are issued in the first place to the towns in which the hcadquai-tcrs of the. units which captured them are situate. Headquarters of units have been instructed that trophies so issued are not to be considered the exclusive property of the rcscpective regimental area-, and that the claims of other towns in those areas must receive consideration. With this end in view, officers commanding units have been instructed to cotrfcr with the mayors of towns in"which their headquarters are situate, requesting these in turn to communicate with the i mayors of other towns in their areas with a view to forming committees to deal with the distribution of_ lite tropaies on an equitable basis. Thus it will bo seen that applications tor war trophies should ;iot be made to the Don. the Minister of Defence, but tojlie Mayors of the towns in which the headquarters of uniis are situate,