A SOLDIER LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 2, 3 January 1942, Page 6

A SOLDIER LEADER

The New Zealand section of the New Year Honours List, as is fitting, emphasises that war is the supreme task of the hour. It selects for distinction men of the Army, Navy, and Air Force who have taken a notable part either in operations or in the less spectacular but equally necessary work of preparation. Special interest attaches to the honour conferred on a New Zealander in the British list, Major-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, commander of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Though Major-General Freyberg's service in the Great War and his subsequent military associations were with the British forces, he remained a New Zealander at heart; and the gratification he experienced at reunion with the New Zealanders as their commander in this war has been proved in his zealous and untiring devotion to them. The honour now given to him is a recognition of the highest achievement of a general and the soldiers under his command —the fighting of stubborn actions which cannot be immediately victorious. The New Zealanders, except a few, missed the first victorious Libyan campaign. Their great ordeal came and their reputation was made against the overwhelming odds encountered in Greece and Crete. Even in the second Libyan campaign it was their lot to meet Rommel's desperate break. But it is in such fighting, when odds and heavy losses test the spirit, that the soldiers and their leadership are proved. MajorGeneral Freyberg and the New Zealanders have come through this trial with the greatest' distinction. The knighthood now bestowed by his Majesty is an honour for a proved leader of proved soldiers.