GLOWING TRIBUTE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1942, Page 3

GLOWING TRIBUTE

PAID TO THE WOMEN OF NEW ZEALAND AND TO THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. ADDRESS BY AMERICAN MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A glowing tribute to the women of New Zealand for their fortitude amid the tragedies of war was paid by Bri-gadier-General Hurley, United States Minister to New Zealand, at the opening of a new club for service men and women in Manners Street, Wellington. He also eulogised New Zealand’s contribution to the effort of the United Nations, and the gallantry and devotion to duty of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Every day, General Hurley said, he read the New Zealand Roll of Honour. He often thought of what New Zealand mothers must be enduring, quietly, silently and patiently. He thought, too, of the valour and spirit with which the New Zealanders attacked the enemy with the bayonet the other night and in the next day and the day following. Now they were reading the Roll of Honour. Behind the men who had fallen was the character of New Zealand. In this war, as in other wars, New Zealand had never shirked. New Zealand had always contributed more than her portion and she was doing so today. When I think how the women of New Zealand are taking the situation,” said General Hurley, “I am reminded of that beautiful poem by Walken Miller:—

Thd bravest battle that ever was fought, Shall I tell you where and when? On the fields of the world you find it not; It was fought by the mothers of men. “My heart today is with those New Zealanders who are meeting the enemy in battle, and with the mothers, the wives, the sweethearts, and the sisters they have left at home. I hope that all of us may emulate the courage, the generosity and the fighting spirit of New Zealand.” The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, who followed Brigadier-General Hurley, said his words must have reached the heart of everyone who had heard them. They carried with them the true spirit in which all this country’s enterprise was initiated and carried on.