GENERAL RICHARDSON.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1643, 21 May 1919, Page 11

GENERAL RICHARDSON.

A CIVIC RECEPTION. PROBLEMS OF THE DAY. POSITION OF DISABLED MEN. Representative citizens of Cluistchureh, including returned soldiers and a. number of ladies, gathered in the City Council Chambers early this afternoon to welcome Brigadier-General G. S. Richardson, C.8., C.M.G. —known and loved by the "diggers" as "Dicky"—who recently returned to the Dominion from distinguished work ill Prance and England. In the absence of the Mayor of Christchurch (Dr H. T. J. Thackcr, M.P.), who is attending the Townplanning Conference in Wellington, the civic, reception was extended by Mr J. W. Beanland, Deputy-Mayor. Mr Beanland said that the Mayor had asked him to convey to General Richardson his greetings, in which he referred to the soldiers' love for the General. Mr Beanland went on to say that a man who had been away fighting our cause, and in many other ways helping our boys, deserved some recognition. The statements of the soldiers who had returned showed that General Richardson was something more than a soldier — that he was a man who had done all he could for the "boys," in the line and out of it, in hospitals and everywhere else. General Richardson had been averse to a publie reception, and had only been persuaded in view of the fact that it would give him an opportunity to speak of what had been done by the people in this country. The speaker extended to the guest the best wishes of the city, and trusted that he would take away with him the kindly feelings wh'ch the citizens had toward him. Colonel R, A. Chaffey, C.8.E., V.D., officer commanding the Canterbury Military District, heartily welcomed the General on behalf of the forces. All knew of the work that General Richardson had done—of the way in which he had put himself out, not only to help in winning the war, but also in looking after our soldiers. His return had been | looked forward to because his ripe knowledge and experience would help immensely in the wo-k of the future. Mr R.C. Bishop f iressed the citizens' pleasure at seeing the General back again safe and sound. In replying, General Richardson re-, marked that he was not a stranger in Christchurch, which he had visited frequently in the past 28 years. The first that the soldier thought of and the first he honoured were those who were left beind. The soldiers thought of the little crosses in Gallipoli and France and; other places. Those who lay there were the real heroes of the war, and those were the men that the people should first think of and honour. With regard to what had been said about his treatment of te soldiers the General said, he like the other officers had felt that as an officer and an individual in authority he had been a .representative of the parents of this country. Many of the officers were family men themselves, and they thought of how they would like to have their own sons handled humanely and justly, and they had kept that uppermost in their minds. Speaking, then, of what had been done in New Zealand during the war, General Richardson said that, regarding himself as the month-piece of the General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and. of the men, he wished to express gratitude to the people of New Zealand for their patriotic efforts to help the men in the field. For the first 20 months of the war he had been in the field. Then he was recalled to England,-where he had to prepare an organisation for dealing with the men in England and with the backward stream from France. That was the biggest, problem of all —handling the men in camps and hospitals and convalescent homes until they were returned to New Zealand or sent back into the field. He had felt more of the horrors of war in En.gland than in the field, because there was such a concentration of the sick and wounded and mutilated in England. Pie could not say definitely, but he believed he was right in saying that there were not far short of a million beds occupied by sick and wounded soldiers in England at one time. Naturally, that made one sympathetic, and one tried to do all one could. But the task would have been more difficult if it had not been for the backing one got from the people of this country. There were no better-equipped hospitals in England than the New Zealand hospitals. General Richardson went on to eulogise the work of the Red Cross (with which the St. John Ambulance Association was associated), the Lady Liverpool Pund, and the various patriotic associations and other organisations which had , helped the soldiers and had been supported by the people of this country, these included the Y.M.C.A., the Church Army and the Salvation Army. So much had been sent from this country that there -had been difficulty in transporting it to the men in the trenches, but it had been recognised that a parcel from here not only gave variety of diet but also had a great sentimental value —it gave the men visions of his home and people and perhaps helped to keep him straight. The General spoke of the tremendous expansion of the Red Cross and Y.M.C.A. organisations during the war. What, had disappointed him in going to Y.M.C.A. institutions in New Zealand was that very little use seemed to be made of them by returned men. The men had all benefited from the Y.M.C.A. at the front, and he hoped they would support it in the service it I

was rendering in building up good citizens. Deep admiration of the way in which women had worked, not only in England but also in this country, was expressed by General Richardson. When he was at the Star! College at Camberley, before the war, it had been thought that future wars would be very short—that the whole manhood of a -nation would have to turn out, that industries would be depleted, and that the ordinary economic machine would come to a standstill, and therefore wars must be short. But they had been deceived; the' war had lasted 51 months. They had been able to -carry on so long only because in every industry women had filled the breach. It had been a source of great pride, to him when he had seen in Great Britain women doing all sorts of rough work usually done by men. The war had caused him to have the greatest admiration for the women of ' the British Empire. ! Speaking of the reabsorption of rej turned soldiers into civil life, the genI oral said that some men had made mis-. I takes or had been unsettled when they returned; but it should be realised that ; the returned man was a little different I psychologically from what he was when 1 he went away, but ; he could be made a better man. He spoke of the mixing together of all sorts and conditions of men in the trenches, and of the breaking-down Of class prejudices and the growth of a better understanding ( of and respect for one another amongst the men who had fought together. They had learned that beneath every man's coat there was a good heart. Because of what they had \ lo„ ned, they were better- educated than when they went away. Let us look upon the returned soldier as a better man for his experiences. Some may make mistakes and be unsettled, but we could not afford to let them go on making mistakes or being unsettled. As the country had united to help in winning the war, it should unite to settle the returned men back in civil life, in making good citizens of them, in giving them the careers they deserved, land in helping them to realise their ambitions. Let us keep in mind that they had earned a tremendous reputation for New Zealand. Speaking with authority, the General said that the New Zealand soldier had earned a high reputation, not only for his physique, his soldierly bearing, and his fighting qualities, but also for his conduct. It may seem strange to those who saw a few soldiers in the streets under the influence of drink, but on the whole of the Western front there was no force which had a lesser record of drunkenness than the New Zealand i Division. Wherever he went, he had found the New,, Zealand soldier placed first in estimates of men who were good all-round, morally as well as physically. So it was up to the nation not to talk nice things about replacing the men in civil life, but to act. It was time for deeds, and not words. Special reference to the problem of re-establishing disabled men in civil life was made by the speaker. He understood that some of the patriotic organisations in New Zealand still held large sums, of money, which had been raised for war work, and he hoped that much of it would be devoted to the task of re-establishing disabled men. He hoped he would never see in this country what ho had seen in London just before he left-—a man, wearing a returned soldier's badge, who was making drawings arid paintings on the pavement and begging for pennies from passers-by. What was wanted was not charity, but help for the disabled soldier to get back into civil life, and to be a good citizen. We were apt, continued the general, to forget that New Zealand was not the only show on earth. We should remember that'we had only played our part, and remember what great things had been done by Old England and the British Arm)'. Before the war, Great Britain had only six divisions of Regulars and 14 Territorial divisions. In 1.914 she sent four divisions, practically 80,000 men, to France, and it undoubtedly was due to their efforts that Paris was saved then. No country had worked harder than the United Kingdom. General Richardson concluded by making an appeal for the continued safeguarding of New Zealand —for the maintenance of a system of defence that would enable us to be ready if we were ever attacked again.