DIGGERS’ MOTHER

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 169, 5 April 1923, Page 5

DIGGERS’ MOTHER

MISS BUTLER, C.8.E., ARRIVES

“A CORNER OF BLIGHTY” IN PARIS THREE YEARS’ TOUR OF AUSTRALIA

"Never did a New Zealander cross tho threshold of “A Corner of Blighty” the worse for drink. In Australia, during my three years’ tour, they accepted my proclamation unchallenged, that the soldiers of New Zealand were the bestbehaved men of all the Briish armies in the field.”

Aliss Lily Butler, C.8.E., who will be remembered as the Diggers Alother by every New Zealander and -Anstralian who visited Paris on leave, and who administered the affairs or A Corner of Blighty,” the picturesque Louis Quatorze mansion in the Place Vendome, arrived by the Aloeraki yesterday morning. Early as the hour or berthing was, the general secretary and the ‘local secretary of tho New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association were at tho gangway, and took charge of Aliss Butler, who, throughout the day, held an informal court at the Soldiers’ Chib, meeting many old friends, who called in to thank her for the free teas, cigarettes, and home comforts of the Parisian rest-house that meant so much to the war-worn veterans of the batlefields of France and Flanders. An Interesting Career. Aliss Butler has crowded more incident into her life than the majority of world travellers or men of affairs. Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, she is a direct descendant of James Butler, Duke of Ormond, whose motto was, “Be as loyal to the King as the sun-dial is to the sun.” Owing to her mother’s health, she went to France in her childhood, and was educated there, and was trained as a professional lecturer. She was in Pans when the war broke out. and enlisted on August 2, 1914. Working in a French soup-kitchen till the first battle of Hie Marne, when she became second-in-command of the British Red Cross in Paris till she opened a home for soldiers of the British Empire, which she called. “A Comer in Blightv,” under the patronage of Lord Bertie, the British Ambassador. Sixty-five workers toiled under her able leadership in tending to the comforts. Tho kinship of the peoples of the British racb was illustrated m the menial tasks done by ladies of high degree at “Blighty,” one of the cooks was a sp/ig o» English nobility. The Prime Minister and Sir Josepn '■ ar ° visited it early in 1919, and Air. Alassoy’s daughter served tea there. Ihe commanders of the Canadian, tralian and New Zealand armies eulogised the value to tho soldiers on active service of the home in Pam, where sympathetic advice anil practical’ help was always forthcoming. Curiously enough, “Blighty ’ had passed into the hands of the Germans before the war, and was a fashionable costumiers. It was sequestered to the French Government, who handed it over to Aliss Butler, free of rent and taxes, for the duration of the war and after. , . . Three Years in Australia.

Some time after the Armistice, General Sir John Monash put .'Miss Butler on a home-going troopship, and she lias spent the last three years travelling through Australia, as-tho guest of the Federal and State Governments. “I have been all round Australia,” she said; “I have travelled by camel, pack-horse and car. I have camped out alone among the bushmen, and made friends with the blacks way up along tlie Overland Telegraph route, as far as Charlotte Waters in Northern Australia. Now I have come to New Zealand, to do the same as I have bden doing in Australia —tell the women and children of this country what the boys have been too modest todo, their deeds in the battlefield. If that were possibles, I will endeavour to bind closer the links between New Zealand and the Old Country. I want to see my boys at work in their civil occupations.” Miss Butler touched New Zealand soil for the first time at the Bluff, the Moeraki’s first port of call. What a welcome she got there! The mayor* and councillors came in a bodv to the ship to welcome her in the Dominion. At Invercargill, the R.S.A. and the City Council gave her receptions, and while there she had the joy of meeting Digger Ashley, the first New Zealand soldier she met. at “A Corner in Blighty.” At Dunedin, the boat had hardly touched the wharf when a big New Zealander, Lieutenant Stewart Cameron, one of five brothers that were in the Great Adventure, came to renew his acquaintance with her. She has not yet made up her mind which of three towns, - among all she has visited, Dunedim. Hobart, or Adelaide, is the most beautiful in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Otago capital, the hospitality of the people was exemplified by three luncheon invitations on Good Friday, ah invitation, says Miss Butler, to commit the sin of gluttony I Since her arrival in 'Wellington, Aliss Butler has been made a member of the Pioneer Club, and is the guest of Mrs. Shute, a friend of her school days. While in Melbourne, she had the pleasure of meeting Lady Jellicoe, and of receiving a letter of welcome from Air. Massey; on reaching Wellington. She had letters from many old friends, including Sir Andrew Russell. It is expected that the Diggers’ Alother will take part in the Poppy Day ceremonies in Wellington.