WAR MEMORIAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 9 October 1922, Page 7

WAR MEMORIAL.

IN HONOR OF NEW ZEALANDERS

BY CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received Oct. 9 3 11.30 a.m.

„. _, PARIS, Oct. 8. bir Francis Bell, speaking at the unveiling of the memorial at Longueval, expressed thanks on behalf of the people of New Zealand to the Government of France and the Prefecture of the Somme for permission to erect a memorial to New Zealand's soldiers. He deeply appreciated the honour France conferred upon them and valued the privilege of having jtheir services witn the armies of France thus recorded on one of the historic battlefields. He also thanked the French generals for I attending to do honour to their comrades in the Great War. Sir Francis Bell paid a tribute to General Godley, uj? er n$r om the m<m were nrstTtrain. ~ Tke memorial was a record of , tne living and the dead. It was not an idle vaunt of any part New Zealand took in her endeavour to do her duty by the Empire and the Allies, but of pardonable pride in the men whose courage and devotion made the division memorable.

The memorial stands on the. site of \ SWA teh trench > the m,ain objective of the N«w Zealand division in an attack on September 15, 1916, \on the German lines lasting 26 days, in which sixty oicers and fifteen hundred men were killed, with a total of seven thousand casualties. We who erect the memorial will" never forget our soldiers' deeds in France. Sir Francis Bell concluded by saying that Britain and France many often differ in the future, but both had learned that tuture civilisation and the very existenqe of liberty, depended on- their unity. The memorial also would remind our children of the alliance which preserved freedom at present' and can alone maintain it in future. Sir James Allen thanked the municipality of Longueval and Vicomte JUanger. former owner of the land for I their assistance in-the securing of the [ site 'for the' memorial.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable ■ Assn. • ■

Speaking at the unveiling of the war monument, M. Poincare reiterated his determination to obtain reparations from Germany. He declared that there was never a more clement or liberal peace treaty, and we demand that its conditions be fulfilled. France during the last few days, had shown her sincere Sesire for peace by holding »>ack others who were in danger of falluig over the precipice. France had no intention o£ repudiating her interests in the Near East. On the contrary she was a great Mussulman power and was defended during the by hundreds and thousands of Mussulman soldiers. He had recently received a telegram from £he Sultan of Morocco, proving that the Turkish victory jnL..Asia, Minor was hailed with real satisfaction by his co-religionists. aus.-jn.Z. Cable Assn.