RHINE TROOPS DEPART

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 769, 16 September 1929, Page 9

RHINE TROOPS DEPART

NO BITTERNESS AMONG GERMANS HIGHEST TRIBUTES PAID

Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service)

Reed. 11 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. A message from Wiesbaden says the evacuation of the Rhineland was begun today, when the first detachment of British troops entrained for London. The German people bade them, farewell.

There were no signs of bitterness. Bands played “Tipperary” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.” During the 11 years spent by the troops on the Rhine, they have borne an unblemished record, to which a tribute was paid by General Sir William Thwaites, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Occupation, in bis farewell, order.

All ranks, be said, had gained lasting prestige for themselves and the British Army in the eyes of those with whom they had come in contact, on account of their soldierly bearing and officency, and their consideration and courtesy toward the people whose country they were now leaving. In a letter to Sir William. Thwaites, the War Secretary, Mr. Tom Shaw, conveys his profound thanks for the way in which the troops have maintained the British reputation for chivalry, courtesy and fair play during the occupation period. “It is a source of profound satisfaction to me, as indeed it must be to you, to feel that the British troops can come back from the Rhine with the respect of the people among whom they have been quartered so long.” The last of the British troops will leave about the middle of December, when a member of the Royal Fusiliers’ will haul down the flag. The second battalion of the Leicestershire and the second battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment are to leave the Rhineland for England early this week.

DIFFICULT SITUATION

DEEP RESENTMENT FELT AGAINST FRENCH

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 12.5 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. The “Daily Express" correspondent at Wiesbaden says General Sir William Thwaites has been urgently summoned to London to confer with the War Office regarding a difficult position arising out of France’s intention to occupy the zone which the British troops evacuate. There is deep German resentment over the prospect of two French regiments occupying Wiesbaden, where it was believed there would in future be only a small formal guard for the Rhineland Commission.