FROM LEVIN TO LE QUESNOY.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 16 July 1919, Page 3

FROM LEVIN TO LE QUESNOY.

LOCAL FLAG AN HISTORIC EPISODE. AVhcn the New Zealand Division took part in the last big push against the Germans in France last November, it was not equipped for any gay- ceremonial service. An Auckland resident, who was ia the Rifle Brigade at tlic taking of Quesnoy, was reminded of this by the paragraph which appeared in the Auck and “Star” the other day. describing the flag which was presented by the Mayor of Quesnoy to the New Zealanders who liberated the citizens of that town from the Hun oppressors. When the grateful citizens presented General' H. E. Hart, C.M.G., D. 5.0., with a regimental French flag, and intimated that the fernleaf of New Zealand would be incorporated on the town’s coat-of-arms, the General was informed that the proper thing to do was to present the town, in exchange, with one of the Dominion’s regimental flags. He hunted high and low through his lighting forces, but could not find a single New Zealand flag

amongst them. After frantic search a lone banner bearing the Southern Cross, beloved of “our boys,” was found with one of the non-combatant battalions, and the honour of the division was saved by the exchange of this for the Tricolour presented by the Mayor of Quesnoy. This one New Zealand flag, which was at that time with the victorious New Zealand division, had been made and sent to “our boys” by the children of tlic Levin school. It now proudly adorns the walls of the hotcl-de-ville at Oucsnoy.

Mr J. Mclntyre, headmaster of the Levin High .School, states that the flag referred to is probably one of those subscribed Hr by the children of Levin and the district extending down to Paekaknriki during the war period. Nurse Lewis, of Otaki, on her return from the war promoted a movement in the district- with the object of purchasing a motor ambnlance for service at the front, the movement being largely confined to the school children. Two ■New Zealand flags were, also purchased to send with the .ambulance, one being subscribed by tho children of Levin and the other pupils attending the schools in tbe lower districts, the idea being that after the war one flag was to be deposited in the Levin school and the other in the Otaki Maori School. It is interesting to learn that the Levin flag has been brought into such prominence and that it will have an historic value in its permanent location at Lc Quesnoy, the taking of which by tho New Zealanders was one of tho most gallant episodes- in the Great AVar as well as almost the last engagement in which they» took jiart. The city was one of . the old walled towns, and the walls had to be breached or scaled before the assault, which was carried out with great dash by the Maorilanders. —“Chronicle.”