BRITISH AND DOMINION TROOPS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 106, 4 July 1941, Page 4

BRITISH AND DOMINION TROOPS

Sir,-The letter that you published this week (June 13), and your editorial on it, show there is a danger of a mistake of last war being repeated in this war-the making of invidious comparisons between troops from Britain and troops from the Dominions. Some New Zealanders are apt to overlook the fact that their men and the Australians naturally get more space than British troops in New Zealand news because they are the local product, and local interest in them is the greater. From some of the messages we had about the fighting in Greece at the time, one might have thought that there were hardly any soldiers there from the British Isles. In the last war, and afterwards, it was necessary to point out, what every Anzac knew, that the feat of the 29th Division of Regulars in landing at Cape Helles was at least equal to that of the Australians and New Zealanders. I am not taking away one jot from the reputation of my countrymen and our Australian cousins when I say that by many people overseas the achievements of the English soldier were insufficiently appreciated. The Retreat from Mons and the First Battle of Ypres had been fought before the New Zealanders and Australians entered the

fray. I write "English" of purpose, because there has always been a sort of special glamour about Scottish and Irish regiments. I am not unmindful of the fact that regiments from all parts of the British Isles shared in the glories I mention, but I do think it is profitable at this stage to emphasise the importance of the English soldier in the British Army. The greater part of the fighting in Britain’s wars has always been done by the English line regiments. Of the men who broke the Hindenburg Line in 1918 some 70 per cent were English-English, not British, and the percentage of casualties was about the same. In his statement in the Commons this week, Mr. Churchill has put in its right proportion the shates of the sections of the Imperial Army, and the peoples of the Empire, in the campaigns, and his figures should not be ignored. For goodness sake don’t let us play the enemy’s game by squabbling over the most vital and tragic of contributions to the common

cause,

IRISH-NEW ZEALANDER

(Wellington).