READY FOR ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1941, Page 4

READY FOR ACTION

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION MAJOR-GENERAL FREYBERG’S RETROSPECT. TWO YEARS OF HARD WORK 1 & ACHIEVEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) N.Z.E.F. Official News Service. CAIRO, September 23. “I think officers and men can look back with satisfaction upon our two years’ hard work and achievement,” states Major-General Freyberg, commanding the Second N.Z.E.F., in a special message marking the commencement of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s third year of service. The message states: — “The Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force has just had its second birthday. It seems a far cry back to the days of recruiting and training in New Zealand and the difficulties of organisation in the early days in Egypt. Now we hear of splendidlyequipped training establishments in New Zealand, while in Egypt our own base and training camp has developed from a desert waste to a well-planned town, complete with tar-sealed roads and amenities of all kinds. We have the Lowry Hut, the Church Army Hut, the Y.M.C.A. and E.F.I. canteens in camp, the Maadi Tent in Maadi, and the New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo. No force has been better treated. We owe a debt of gratitude to the wholehearted and generous help of those at home, specially to the National Patriotic Fund.

“On the military side I think officers and men can look back with satisfaction upon our two years’ hard work and achievement.

“We stand now at the beginning of the third year of the war. The New Zealand Division has been brought up to strength after the campaigns in Greece and Crete. The men have been trained and they are fully equipped. With a confidence born of experience, the division is now ready for any part it may be destined to play.”