AUSTRALIA'S ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, 29 April 1918, Page 5

AUSTRALIA'S ARMY.

France, Jan. 13. People at home are probably well aware already that the Australian army in the field is the finest thing Australia has ever produced. Tne stories of its achievements reach home from time to time, and private letters tell of more intimate details*. But it must be difficult from the other side of the world to see the army as a whole. The boys who left their homes in Australia have become men, and men of high individual quality; but more;;, than that, the new soldiers—new ly'to many older things they'meet—*< have become veterans. ;. .They left" home .-'in fresh-hatched:::formations, knowing very , little of the outside world;, they will return having fought at both ends of Europe and with a military, reputation like the old Ironsides of Cromwell.

: From battlefields where men of all races have fought since the beginings of wars, they will bring back the foundation of national history. Australia may have -'been ■'known-' : abroad before this war for many things—her wool, and wheat, and gold', and'political development. She is known 'to--day to the whole world and respected' by friend and foe alike for her Five Divisions. They would nttfu "a proud place in any European army, and that when judged not by their origin—for Australia is a young country without military history, and 'knew little of discipline—but by their deeds and bearing and development as soldiers, in a war which has drawn to the same theatre for the comparison the army of every nation new and old. In the local esteem they are measured alongside the troops of who have trained standing armies since the Dark Ages. The early individual assurance has, in the trial of three years' campaign, ing, been moulded into a maturer, solider confidence based on experience, and performance. They have learnt the whole art of fighting. They have learnt discipline. They are proud of themselves and what they have done. They believe that they are by now the equal of any troops in the British Army, and whether that belief is right or wrong, the fact of it has carried them through many a tough job in the field.