ANZACS IN LONDON.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 14191, 28 April 1919, Page 5

ANZACS IN LONDON.

New Zealanders Slighted.

“WOODEN CROSS” GREATER THAN VICTORIA CROSS.

[Anat. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received Sunday. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 25.

At the Anzac luncheon, Mr W. M. Hughes said ho hoped to take back to Australia tidings that liberty and freedom were secured for ever by the Peace .Conference. Australia had also fought for the right to keep Australia for Australians, and to govern their own land in their own way. As France must have the Rhine frontier, so Australia must have a frontier. The difference between the leasehold and freehold of the Pacific Islands mattered nought. General Monash. also responded for Australia, describing Villers Brctonneux as the crisis of the whole war. But for the success of the Australians at Villers Brctonneux, Armicns would have fallen in four days, and the British would have been separate from the French.

Lord Milner and .Air Fisher proposed the health of the Lord Mayor, the boys singing ‘‘For he’s a jolly good fellow". ’ ’

General Birdwood, in response to a unanimous cry for “Birdwood,” delivered an impromptu speech, in which ho paid a tribute to the Australians who had won tiie Victoria and Military Crosses, but said that none w-crc more honourable that the wooden crosses erected over the graves of the dead. There was some comment at the absence of New Zealanders, who were invited at a late stage, thus causing some resentment.

The Australians marched through the city with fixed bayonets. This was a noteworthy innovation, as the right has hitherto been reserved for regiments associated with the city. The Australian aviators performed intricate evolutions at low altitudes along the route.