LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 12

LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

(Contributed.) The two contributions on this subject already published have given the story of the founding and the later history of the Legion. The man in the street knows little of the Legion’s aims and objects, and many and varied are the opinions held about it. In many cases it is held to be a military organisation, and it is in a way, although the State has no control an<l the hard and fast rigid discipline of the Army is conspicuous by its absence. Discipline there is, of course, as discipline there must be"; but it is more like the discipline of the old volunteering days, when men joined because they wanted to, not because thev had to. .

The Army has no control over the Legion, and cannot call on its memberg to serve as frontiersmen. But when Britain declares war that moment the Legion throughout the Empire is automatically enlisted, and awaits orders. _ The Legion is not a crowd of jingoistic swashbucklers looking for a scrap, but every man who wears the “Circle Cross” badge is sworn to serve his King and country whenever and wherever wanted. The Legion has no religion and no politics. Those are matterg entirely for the individual. But although* the Legion has no politics, its religion and its politics are “the Empire” and all it means. Therefore those sinister forces that are quietly working to disintegrate the Empire* and establish Bed rule in our midst are the natural enemies ,of the Legion, and the men of the Circle Cross will stand side by side to defend their country from these insidious foes just as they stood side by side in France and Flanders to stem the German advance. And the Legion has room in, its ranks for good men and true, men who are , imbued with the true, patriotic spirit and will fight against Anything and everything that is aimed at the welfare of our great Empire. The law of the camp is the law of the Legion. Its rules are just those that, obtain in any pioneer camp of British men, clean men, in any part of the Empire, and its comradeship is the magnet that draws legionaries together. When a man really knows and understands the comradeship, the true brotherhood of the Legion of Frontiersmen, he is in it for life. So the best kind of men in New Zealand who have seen service and know what pioneering work is are entering the legion’s ranks and proudly . wearing its badge. At the London headquarters letters, are pouring in from all parts of the world telling of the spirit of the Legion, the old brigade. In the legion in New Zealand we are still doing.a vast amount of pioneer work of organisation. There are scores of places whei'e the name of the' Legion has never vet been heard* But with the spirit of the frontier, the frontier that teaches endurance and patience, our organisers and pioneers carry the mepsage on. With powerful squadrons in a number of places in the North Island we have the foundations of a great order, which will grow and grow until it forms one of the strongest pillars of onr Empire.