The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST.” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1948 Back From The War

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1943, Page 2

The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST.” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1948 Back From The War

GOLDSMITH, in his immortal “Deserted Village,” speaks of the soldier who “shouldered his crutch and told how fields were won,” his stories holding spellbound the rustic audiences to whom he spoke in his family circle. New Zealanders are enjoying a similar experience today, for though there is mercifully little of the crutch to be seen, and the storytellers have something vastly different to talk about than those who fought with musket or sword in the far away days of red-coats, men who arrived back from the Middle East this week have fascinating adventures to relate.

Truly they and others who have preceded them in their return to their homeland are “back from the jaws of death, back from the gates of hell,” yet, as is their way, heroes make little of this aspect of their war service. It is not difficult, however, to read between the lines of participation in deeds which the historian will reveal altered the whole course of the war.

Northlanders generally, and Whangarei people in particular, have reason to be proud of the part men from this territory have played, in common with their comrades in the New Zealand division and those of the Motherland and the United Nations. Those who have been fortunate enough to get a respite have not forgotten their comrades resting on the sands of Egypt or that silent host of immortals who will march no more, but today they are not dwelling upon the aspect of war which has brought sorrow, coupled with pride, to so many hearts. At the same time, the recital of experiences but serves to heighten the admiration with which hearers regard all who have endured years of warfare. As will be realised by readers of interviews and other articles printed in the “Advocate” yesterday and today, it is clear that Whangarei and Northland men have shared in remarkable experiences which might have been expected to be found only in the pages of fiction; certainly none of the actors ever dreamed in days of peace they would figure in such exploits, either on the field of battle or in enterprises which influenced the course of battles.

It is noteworthy that the pakeha soldiers are first and foremost admirers of their Maori comrades, who, they declare, proved themselves worthy descendants of great fighting men. Cabled news of the deeds of the Maori Battalion during the height of fearful combat has revealed something of the bravery and fighting spirit of the Maoris, but the stories told by their pakeha comrades who were on the same field of battle, shed a more penetrating light upon their heroism. It is noteworthy also that Maori warriors are equally enthusiastic about their pakeha comrades. This is a good augury for the development of even better understanding and co-opera-tion between the two races in the days when peaceful reconstruction will take the place of the dread arbitrament of force in fixing the fate of peoples. Apart from the shock of battle, in which returned men acquitted themselves valiantly, it is clear, from the stories related this week, that Northlanders took part in many of those undertakings which, as has been said, might have been figments of a fiction writer's imagination. The work of those who built the roads, and laid the rails and the pipe-lines and the other communication lines, which made possible great military operations, brought them into weird and wonderful territories, where initiative and self-reliance alone carried them through. These undertakings were not all of the kind which will vanish when the war ends. New Zealanders will be able, in years to come, to reflect, for instance, that some of their countrymen took part in the construction of the line which is to give Africa rail connection with Europe. Who dreamed that Northlanders would participate in such a scheme, or that other Northlanders would share in one of the most extraordinary episodes of the war in Africa: the exploratory expedition of the Long Range Patrol? These are but isolated instances in a remarkable story, which forms a fitting prelude to the world-shaking events taking place on the other coast of the Mediterranean today. Northlanders will rejoice that they have heard of these things from the lips of some who have shared in them, and they will sincerely pray the day is not far distant when, instead of speaking of a war in. progress, men now overseas will be back speaking of a war that was.