BRAVE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1917, Page 5

BRAVE NEW ZEALANDERS.

PRAISED BY BRITISH GENERAIR A In his address to the senior draft) of reinforcements in Trentham Cam? ! (he Chief of the General Staff, Coloml -, C. ST. Gibbon, 1.G.5., has always fllg* .■' cd the men, to do their best t» keep . : up the good name of New Zealand. Ai* '•'■ dressing the 21st Infantry and Engta* cera nt Trentham on Monday lie quofe& " extracts from letters from general* AS tlie front and from the London Thaw, which showed that tfte New Zealand i division in France had done excellent .j work. , i : "Mtuiv of you havosread," said Ool» I \ onol Gibbon, "what Sir Douglas Hfttg lias said about our men, lam given, ,; to understand that the General is uofl lavish in bestowing praise He' stated - \ i'hat the.New Zealand Division bad ««•-?* romplished all the tasks set it, and wea ■ . done mm.. The corps commander, Sir ', 'Tenrv T-wi'e. 'in w<itin<» to General Qod» V ley, said the same thing. Speaking tt M 'ho Now Zealandcrs. General Home said: "All ranks are evidently imbued With , (* ■m excellent spirit. Officers and n>«W>\ were keen to attack, and went in witlf the intention of winning, arid eonte' 'inently did succeed in every case whJW ' ' * remained in.command of the corps." Sir .Henry Rawlinson and Sir BM* bert Gough also spoke well of the divl* <s cion," continued Colonel Gibbon, GhHH * i'ral Raivlinson had written of them ai t - t follows: Jl "They have done all that was askeS of them, and no division has done btU tcr." Sir Hubert Cough saids . ' >.' "What had struck everyone very mtufel t rmd particularly pleased them, was tint the division, though kept in the line r for a very long time, made no bone* • " about \t, and did not ask for relief. What I liked about the men was that ( when an orde/ was given no more was heard of it until it was reported thfttt (he order hod been carried out.V SUCOND TO NONE., , " The quotation from the London Timed of November 11, 1010, read as follow*:' —"While all our armies have fought eat finely thattno man would dare to say' / that any troops were better than the rest there is no one who knows what it , being achieved here, who in making- * list of the foremost fighting regiment*' ' '.vould not give the Now Zealanders a! " place nmongst them, Whatever they, J have been given to do they Have done, s> and havt. never failed to inflict on the! uiemy losses out of all proportion to' " their own casualties. In the fine part' they played in the capture of tflers, the New Zealanders did faultless work. They were a tower cf strength to the troo]>4 «n their riplit hand and on their left, . : Mways doing what they were expected to - do, and always being "whore they oughii

io 1)0." "' Colonel Gibbon here stated that a divi« ( \ : 'on of tlie Guards, the finest troops h \ ,'he world, were fighing beside the N4W , l Zealand Division, and for our troops «V bo spoken of in theso terms was some*- (j, thing to be i>roud of. ;■* Another, general, writing from th» Somme, said: "What I want to tell you about \t ■ the New Zealand Division. Their fighting power and endurance are beyond . ' v ords. No pen can describe their gal« ~ ',; lant infantry and fighting spirit. Thu ' / Huns had "not a day's change with 7 them. Nothing recorded in the pagea/i? history was finer than the attack, re- . ■ pulse, nni. counter-attack, three times in five hours, in the Flers attack of . , the nights of September 20 and 181, ' wh?n the officers led the exhausted remainder of the battalion forward, kille.l over 500 Huns, and took thrco machine* guns." Coionel Gibbon concluded by wishing (he 21st good luck and urging them to keep up tlie name of New Zealand an 4 taise it higher yet* i