GENEROUS PRAISE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 12, 9 October 1917, Page 7

GENEROUS PRAISE

LETTER FROM LIEUT. P. HANNA.

Lieutenant Pat. Hanna, of the firm, of Hanna and King, writes to his partner in the' jolliest and most characteristic .manner from France. Lieut. Hanna is now a trench battery officer with the Otago Regiment, and is a skilled hand at strafing the Hun from the comparative safety of a trench. He writes that he has been trying to get some war trophies away to friends in .Wellington, but that is now rendered next to by the action of the authorities, who do not approve of "the souvenir habit,' perhaps owing to live bqmbs and shells having on occasions been found among such collections in England. "You heard all about Messines; and, of course, our birds did all that was expected of them. As a matter of fact, and without any doubt whatever, the New Zealand Division has. a niche all to itself in-France. Its fighting record is second to none. I would hesitate to say such a thing if it was not widely and generally admitted quite, handsomely by officers of other regiments one meets. They are quite generous in their praise of our .outfit. In ordinary trench warfare, apart 'from 'stunts/ our birds have a great name for hard fighting—that is, always, plugging at the people opposite with our artillery and trench mortars. When we go into a sector we start right in, and in a week or so have Fritz very docile. I have just had five days behind the lines helping Colonel Plug«e to ran divisional sports. Good old Colonel Elugge! Ho is one of tho best; a whopping big schoolboy (18 stone), who will never grow old. That was my second day under his wing, and they were happy days. I had tho divisional swimming carnival to arrange, and it was like old times seeing a crowd of old faces—too many 'gone West though. The motor lorry we went down on was labelled 'To Te Aro Baths-One Franc 1 ' A big Fritz 8-inch kept lobbing stuff about-200 yards behind us, and annoving us some. We hoped they wouldn't shorten range, as it does make such a mess of the place. . . . This place can 'be pretty decent in the 6uanmer, and it can be 'cussed' in tho winter. As I write our 'archies' are,getting terribly excited over two- Fritz 'planes overhead, and are pumping the sky full of shrapnel."