WAR ANNIVERSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1041, 4 August 1930, Page 8

WAR ANNIVERSARY

SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE THE

DECLARATION

NEW ZEALAND’S PART

Sixteen years ago today. Great Britain declared war on Germany. Not until the afternoon of August 5 was the outbreak of war general!? known In New Zealand. At Parliament House, "Wellington, the Governor, Lord Liverpool, read the cablegram containing the news received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In an ultimatum. Great Britain bad requested an assurance from the German Government that the neutrality of Belgium would be respected. That was early on the morning of August I, 1914. Germany rejected the ultimatum and a state of war was proclaimed. Declarations against Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria followed. New Zealand’s first active participation in the Great War was on AUgu-t 29, when an expeditionary fc-rce, commanded by Colonel R. Logan, took P 0 * - session of Western Samoa from to* Germans. On October 16. an expeditionary force of more than S.oOO men of all ranks, sailed for Egypt- T®*®* were the men who combined with the Australians in the landing at Anmc Cove, Gallipoli, and m the subsequent operations. Divisions later went te France, and the achievments of New Zealanders on the Somme, at_Me°sines, Flers, Passohendaele, t pro-. Beaucourt, Bapaume. Le QuesaQF. Puisienx anil Serre made military h>' tory. Against the Turks in and Palestine, the Mounted Km™ Brigade, as part of the Anzac Moan c Division, distinguished itself.