THE FIVE DIVISIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1918, Page 3

THE FIVE DIVISIONS.

AUSTRALIA'S ARMY. CONFIDENCE OF VETERANS. France, Jan. 13. I'eople n,t homo are probably v/ell aware already tihat tlie Australian army in the lield is tlie finest tiling Australia lias ever produced. Tlie 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 t°, see tlle -irny as a whole. The boys wno left their homes in Australia have become men, and men of high individual quality: but more than that, the new soldiers—new relatively to many older things they meet—have become veterans j hev left home in fresh-hatched formations, knowing very little of the outside world; tbey will return having fought at both ends of Europe and with a military reputation like the old Ironsides of Cromwell.

I'rom battlefields where men of all races have fought since the beginning of wars, they will bring back the foundation of national history. Australia may have heen abroad before this war for many her wool, and wheat, and gold, and political develop, ment,. She is known to-day to the whole world and respected by friend and foe alike for her Five Divisions, iliey would hold a proud place in anv 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 liy 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. Jn the local esteem they are measured alongside the troops of Great lowers who have trained standing armies since the Dark Ages. 1 heir eariv individual assurance has, in the trial of three years' campaigning, been moulded into a maturer, solider confidence based on experience and performance. They have learnt discipline ■ y 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 earned them through many a tough iob in the field.