Flanders Role Remembered

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31539, 29 November 1967, Page 18

Flanders Role Remembered

The year 1917 was one of darkness before the light and French people would always remember the role played by New Zealand in the battles of Flanders, the French Ambassador to New Zealand (Mr J. F. Duflos) told members of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and their wives at the regional reunion of the brigade in Christchurch last evening. The Battle of Passchendaele was commemorated by the Rifle Brigade at the reunion. The brigade had kept faith by retaining its close association with France, Mr Duflos said. He assured his hearers that friendship between New Zealand and his country was very much alive and very deep. But, he urged, nations should aim for peace and not war. The sacrifices of past wars must never have been in vain. “Neither would we be for-

given if we only made a selfish world without helping the less privileged countries,” said Mr Duflos. France would play its role in this task, he added. The French Ambassador, a graduate of St Cyr Military Academy, fought at Verdun. He was awarded the Croix de

Guerre and the Legion of Honour. The Ambassador was welcomed to the function by Dr L. C. L. Averill, the chairman of the North Canterbury Hos-

pital Board, and a hero of the action at Le Quesnoy. He said many former members of the brigade held a warm affec-

tion for France, and that many of their comrades lay buried in that country. Dr Averill, then a lieutenant, was the first man over the wall of the fortified town of Le Quesnoy, near the end of the war, in 1918. A welcome was extended to Mr Duflos on behalf of the Christchurch City Council and the citizens of Christchurch by the Mayor (Sir George Manning). Sir George Manning expressed the hope that France, New Zealand and the Commonwealth could again stand together—on a mission to help the emerging countries of South-East Asia. Mr P. N. Cryer, a former Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department, gave details of a tour to the French battlefields to be made by the Dinks next year. He said that up to last week 85 were hoping to go.