"GREAT COMRADESHIP."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 282, 29 November 1927, Page 10

"GREAT COMRADESHIP."

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

PRESENTATION TO MR. AMERT

"ONE OF OURSELVES."

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

'"It is a great comradeship which the soldiers' associations stand for, and they mean a great deal to the British Empire. The little handful of men who were trained, inspired and schooled in Britain's little wars, and particularly the South African campaign, are an important link | in the chain which binds the nation together. The relatives of men who have made the supreme sacrifice love the Empire the better for the sacrifices they I have made for it."

The foregoing sentiments were expressed by Mr. L. S. Amery, Secretary of State for the Dominions, in responding to the welcome extended to him by the Returned Soldiers' Association today.

General Sir Andrew Russell, president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, welcomed Mr. Amery, and said that the mission upon which Mr. Amery was engaged had the wholehearted support of all the patriotic bodies such as those represented in the room.

"We know that you yourself, as a South African veteran, are familiar with the problems that confront retained soldiers, and we welcome you as one of ourselves," said Sir Andrew. He presented Mr. Amery with a walking-stick made of native rewarewa woods, mounted with greenstone, from the returned soldiers of New Zealand.

Captain J. J. Clark, president of the South African War Veterans' Association, then presented the visitor with a gold badge, remarking that Mr. Amery was the first person outside New Zealand ■to receive such a distinction.

Col. R. St. J. Beere, on behalf of the Wellington Squadron of the Legion of Frontiersmen, next presented Mr. Amery with a memento in the form of a greenstone tiki.

| In the course of his reply Mr. Amery said the Empire was not held together by any constitution, but by many links, one of the strongest of which was the soldiers who had fought shoulder to shoulder in battle. He made a plea for kindly assistance and advice to British soldier migrants.