LEADER CHEERED

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 85, 4 January 1940, Page 6

LEADER CHEERED

Major-General Frey berg Meets Ex-Diggers

PRAISE FOR BEARING OF HIS TROOPS

With enthusiasm and emotion Wellington returned soldiers accorded Major-General 1* reyberg a tumultuous welcome at a meeting in the Town Hall concert chamber yesterday. They cheered him as he rose to speak, and sang “For He s A Jolly Good Fellow” and afterward he shook hands with men who had served in divisions with which he had been associated in the last war.

Lieutenant-Colonel A. Cowles, president of the Wellington Returned .Soldiers’ Association, expressed the pleasure’felt by the‘ex-soldiers that MajorGeneral Freyberg had been appointed to command the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, lie would be an inspiration to the younger men, he said. Mr. Perry, M.L.C., president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, said that the new leader would always be known affectionately to his Wellington friends as "Tiny.” “The new Digger, from what we saw of him today,” said Mr. Perry,” certainly looks the goods. Like all of us when we went away he looks a bit raw. We didn’t realize till we arrived overseas what soldiering is, but when Major-General Freyberg gets to wherever ho is going and the men have a few ■ rough corners knocked off, they will turn into a real division.” “As I said yesterday, if I don’t appear moved by this reception it belito the feelings that are inside me,” said Major-General Freyberg. “You do not know how close I am to showing mj emotions. If 1 did, it would embarrass you as much as me and greatly diminish my military value in your eyes. “Since I have been appointed to command the .Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, I have done a record non-stop run. I gave up command at Bulford and I think I had one day, the day on which I took off, to say goodbye to my boy at school. With no notice, I had to travel across various continents to my destination. I worked while 1 travelled because there was an enormous amount of work to do. Since arriving in New Zealand, what with the kindness shown to me and my work, I have had no time to visit the Exhibition, I have seen my brothers only twice and 1 have deserted all my old friends. But you must remember that if I have not been able to come to see you it is not because I did not want to.” Inspection of llroops. Referring to his inspections of the troops in camp at Burnham, Treutham, Ngaruawahia and Papakura, MajorGeenral Freyberg said: “I suppose after 30 years you become a pretty good judge of’men, either individually or men in large numbers. At any rate, I think that from my experience my eye is pretty good and I can tell you that I have been greatly impressed by the stamp of man, by his demeanour on parade, by his toughness, and I’m perfectly certain that it will not be for want of trying or want of grit if they do not live up to the great traditions set them. “We feel the responsibility. I know it and I’m glad of it, because it sets us a standard that we must live up to and if we do that it will reflect the greatest credit on the Expeditionary Force and on our country. “It makes me a little nervous that people expect an enormous amount from me as their commander. I will do my best; one can’t do better than that; but if I were a hundredth part as good as some of the things that have been said about me here, 1 should be a very proud man.” He expressed his heartfelt thanks to the men of the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and also those who served witli him in the naval division and the old 29th division, for their welcome which, he said, had been the highwater mark of his visit to New Zealand. He had spent two hours in Auckland and at the civic reception there had been a wonderful guard of honour of ex-servicemen commanded by Captain Judson, V.C. The arms drill of that guard—old men, many of them, now—was still as good as it had ever been and it had reminded him of the brigade of guards at their best.