NEW ZEALANDERS IN FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1917, Page 4

NEW ZEALANDERS IN FRANCE.

WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN FRANCE. LETTER FROM GENERAL GODLEY, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, Sir James Allen read the following extract from a letter written to, him by General Godley, dated the 12th July last: TSe New Zealand Division has been out of the line resting for some time now, and they are all very fit end well. I had to find a brigade to go and work for the French army near here, who arrived very tired from the south, and had to get a lot of work done in a hurry, so I splected the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, and sent them off yesterday. I visited General Antoine, who commands tha French army, and you will be glad hear he and his staff were, most enthusiastic about the work they bad done, and the way they have behaVed, and altoi gethcr they have earned golden opinions, I saw Fulton and some of his commanding officers and battalions, and they all are enjoying the change, and it is a great experience for them to be so thoroughly identified with, and sandwichcd in with, the French. plugge has-been most ÜBefnl and indefatigable in getting up boxing competitions, sports, and recreations of all kinds for the Division while they have been out of the line, and it has done' them a world of good, D'Aroy Chaytor just paid us a visit on his way from England to Egypt, and be and Stud« holme and Richardson havo fixed \\f 4 various matters for the proper co-ordin-ation of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force here, in England and in Egypt. The King just paid us a visit her*, and saw representative detachments of the Division, which lined his route and cheered him as hfl passed. Wo also had a visit from the Duke of Conmvughst, for whom we paraded a special detachment of his regiment of the Rifle Brigade, and' representative detachments of theiofhers. We have gradually got our new line* pretty well consolidated and established, Rnd are looking forward to a fresh movo in the direction of Berlin. Since I wrote I have been up to Megsines, and it is a most extraordinary . sight—absolutely flat, and more completely pitted with shell holes, and tho ground more absolutely broken up, than that of the Soniine, which I described In a previous letter. In fact, Pozieres and other places down there' are nothing to it, as iu tho case of Messines it got shelling both ways—first of all from us, and ever since from the Boehe. I have had to put the. place out of bennds, and put a ring fence around it, as the Boche shells it so severely and persistently.