NEW GOVERNORGENERAL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24814, 2 March 1946, Page 7

NEW GOVERNORGENERAL

EMPIRE SOCIETIES’

RECEPTION TRIBUTES TO SERVICE (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, February 28. The battle of the turning of the Mareth Line was the first time the Royal Air Force was used in its proper role of lending close support to ground troops, said Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg in a speech at a combined Empire societies reception at the Dorchester Hotel to mark his ap? pointment as Governor-General of New Zealand. Smiling broadly, General Freyberg pointed out that he said this in the presence of two FieldMarshals —Sir Harold Alexander and Lord Milne.

“Greece and Crete were not easy battles. We suffered heavy casualties and there was later a good deal of criticism,” he said. Perhaps historians would agree with the president of the Royal Empire Society (the Earl of Clarendon), who had remarked earlier at the reception that Greece and Crete, undoubtedly, had a fundamental influence on the outcome of the war, General Freyberg praised the work of the Empire societies and the hospitality that had been extended to New Zealand servicemen m the United Kingdom during the war. The Earl of Clarendon paid a tribute to Sir Bernard Freyberg’s mag? nificent service to the Empire and wished him and Lady Freyberg every success in their new appointment, He said they had received a good initiation into “the mysteries of handshaking” at the reception, which was attended by more than 500 guests.