GENERAL FREYBERG TRIBUTES TO EMPIRE SERVICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1946, Page 8

GENERAL FREYBERG TRIBUTES TO EMPIRE SERVICE

RECEPTION IN LONDON (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February 28. Warmest wishes for a successful term of office in New Zealand were extended to Lieutenant-General Sir" Bernard Freyberg and Lady Freyberg by Lord Clarendon at a reception given in their honour by the Combined Empire Societies. The gathering included many distinguished guests,' including Field Marshals Alexander and Milne, Viscount Addison, Lord Peth-wick-Lawrence, the Dowager Countess Jellicoe and Viscountess Galway.

General Freyberg expressing thanks, said that he was glad to have an opportunity of expressing New Zealander’s appreciation for the hospitality they had received throughout the war from the combined societies. He agreed with Lord Claren T don that the facts "which would be divulged in the coming year might throw some further light on the Greece and Crete campaigns. Emphasising that the army which fought at Al Alamein was an Empire army, he recalled that many British regiments had fought as part of the New Zealand Division, some of which had incorporated the New Zealand emblem in their own. Looking back on the war, it seemed that the New Zealand Division had sat astride of the most important sites at a decisive time in history. In 1941, it had saved Tobruk and had taken an important part in the battle of the Mareth Line, when, for the first time, air forces were used in close support of our own troops in the brilliant battle designed by Marshal Alexander that broke the German army.

General Freyberg said that he wanted to make a point that, as good as was the New Zealanders’ record, it was not better than lots of other divisions. Often when successes were attributed to the New Zealand Division, half of the troops fighting were British and deserved just as much credit as New Zealand did.