FREYBERG IN MELBOURNE

Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 2

FREYBERG IN MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND COMRADESHIP (Rec. 8 a.m.) MELBOURNE,. July 13. Lieutenant-general Sir Bernard Freyberg arrived on a brief visit to Mel- « bourne to-day, and was welcomed ' byhigh ranking Australian officers. He was accompanied by. Mr Berendsen (New Zealand Commissioner). General Freyberg, interviewed, spok« of Australian and New Zealand comradeship, which, he said, began at Gallipoli. The spirit that had made Australia and. New Zealand one at Anzac was renewed in another generation to-day. , He added:" I would emphasise that they fight side by side to-day not merely a* allies of sister dominions, but as broi | thers. We have never looked on General Sir Iven Mackay aiid General Sir Leslie Morshead as exclusively your leaders. We made them ours, and any New Zealander would have been proud to serve .under them. The New. Zealanders were proud to have tho Ninth Division alongside whenever tough fighting was to be done." In a leader on General Freyberg't visit the Melbourne 'Herald' said: " New Zealand gave willingly or her few, and whatever wi<ter strategical con : siderations there may have been she demonstrated the profound depth of her faith by holding her finest troops lit the Middle East while confronted with an imminent menace at home. The Australians who fought beside the New Zealanders in the desert envied them tho opportunity of thrusting ou to . Tunisia with the Eighth Army while the fortune ot war sent the A. 1.1. into the jungles of New Guinea. But they | and the Now Zealand people can rejoice, ! in the well-won honours of the New Zealanders, whoso brave leader symbolises their fighting qualities." -