THE NEW BRIGADE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3183, 6 September 1917, Page 6

THE NEW BRIGADE

■■';-'• A • QUESTION ANSWERED NEWS OF HE FORCE LETTER.FROM GENERAL GODLEY. .The Defence Minister road to the members of. the House of Representatives yesterday the following extracts from a letter from General Godley to himself:-^ Rβ the new brigade. Yes, it is quite (clear, and. we all quito understand that it will have to be broken up again! , if necessary, and we are not to count upon any extra reinforcements for it. I think there is now- no question of its being employed elsewhere t'iiah' in this corps . elong with the New Zealand Division. The New Zealand .Division has been out. of the line resting for some time now, and they arc all very fit and well. 1 had to find a brigade to go and work for a French army near here, who errived very tired from 'the south, and had to get a lot of work done in a hurry, so I selected the New Zealand Rifle Brigade .'. and sent them off. Yesterday I visited General Antoine, who commands the French army, and you will lie glad to liear that he and his Staff were most .enthusiastic about tho work they liavo done, and the way they Tiave behaved, end altogether they have earned golden . Opinions. I saw Fulton and some of his /commanding officers and battalions, and they all are enjoying the change, and it Iβ a great experience for them to be so thoroughly identified with, and sandWiched in with, the French. Plugge has-been niost useful and indeffatigible in getting tid boxing competitions, sports, and recreations of all kinds for the division, while they have been out of the line, and it las done them a .•world of good. \

D'Arcy Chaytor has just paid us a visit- on his way from England to Egypt, •id lie and Studholmo and Bichardson hare fixed up various matters for the proper co-ordination of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force here, in England, and in Ejypt. ' The King has just paid ns i visit here, ftnd 6aw_ representative detachment 3 of : the division, which lined his route, and cheered him as he passed. We also had a visit from the Duke of Connanqht, for whom we paraded a specinl detachment cf his regiment, the Rifle Brigade, and Jrepresentative detachments of the others. We have gradually got our new lines Jjretty well consolidated and established, and are looking forward to a fresh.'move in the direction of Berlin. Since I wrote I have been iip.to.Meesines, and it is a most extraordinary eight, 'absolutely fiat, nnd more completely pitted with shell holes, and the ground more absolutely }>rolcen up,' than that on tho Sbmmc, <rhich 1 described to you in a previous letter. In fact, Poziores and the other places down there are''nothing to it. as in the case of Ifessincs it got the shelling loth, ways, first ot all from us, aad ever einco from the Boche. I have had to ,jrat the place out of bounds and put a ling fence round it, as the Boche shells It so severely and persistently.