Freyberg's Division
difficult to speak the truth without blushing and without making others blush for our plainness. It has been the problem of every public man who has been called on during the last few days to welcome General Freyberg; and the problem of the General himself in replying on behalf of the Division: To call the General a great soldier is safe enough if we are all using words in the same way: the popular way. It is the simple truth by all the tests by which civilians estimate soldiers — courage, strength, dash, success. Similarly when the General said that if the Division never fought again it would still be famous a hundred years hence, he said no more than every New Zealander firmly believes. But he in fact said more than that; far more. He said that it would have the place, a hundred years hence, that Crawford’s Light Division has been given in the history of the War in the Spanish Peninsula; and that is something that no student of military history would say lightly. How much more then does it mean when it is said, not by the mere student of battles, but by the wager and winner of them; not by a recorder but by a doer; not by a general whose fighting days are over but by the fighting leader of a fighting force brought home for a few days to tell us how the battle is going. We must take notice of an opinion like that when we consider the circumstances in which it was given; and we must not hesitate to exalt the leader when we think of the audience to which he has exalted his army-our army; our sons and brothers and lovers and friends who five years ago really were the country lads at whom our enemies sneered, peaceable farmers and labourers and factory hands and clerks without enmity against anyone, and with no thought of battles at home or abroad. He led it through triumphs and — a far more bitter test-he held it steadily through overwhelming defeat, and’ we need not look for a better definition of greatness. F are times when it is
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19430702.2.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 210, 2 July 1943, Page 3
Word count
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365Freyberg's Division New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 210, 2 July 1943, Page 3
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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