RECEPTION IN WELLINGTON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 23 June 1943, Page 2

RECEPTION IN WELLINGTON

WELCOME TO GENERAL FREYBERG TRIBUTES PAID IN SPEECHES Wellington, This Day. At the civic reception for General Freyberg in the Majestic Theatre SL Wellmcton, speeches were given by the Mayor (Mr T. C. A. Hislop), Mr Fraser, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland), and the Hon. W. Perry, Minister of War Coordination. Mr Hislop, concluding a tribute to General Freyberg and th e New Zealand Division, said: “To all those of the divison to-day we send our message of thanks and pride in their achievements. Truly it can be said that no man in the days to come whatever he may do or be, can have no prouder memory than to be able to say: ‘I served in Freyberg’s New Zealand Division.’ ” Mr Fraser disclosed that when he was first commissioned by the New Zealand Government to search the British Army for some competent and efficient leader to whom could be entrusted the destinies and the lives of New Zealand’s sons, he obtained the best and highest opinions from military experts in Britain. Mr Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty, and who was now the greatest Prime Minister in the Empire’s history, had told him he had intended, during the first week he was in London, coming to him to ask him, to plead with him if necessary, to appoint General Freyberg to the command. They knew'from Mr Churchill’s address to the New Zealand Division in Tripoli that he regarded their performances as unsurpassed. and’ that no commander in the British Army was held in higher esteem by Mr Churchill. Mr Holland said no greater tribute could be paid to any man than tc place in his care and under his command th e very flower of New Zealand’s young manhood, “and we did that with faith, with pride and with supreme confidence.” Mr Perry, on behalf of returned soldiers, said the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, as those at home had confidently expected, had fully lived up to and even transcended the deeds of the Anzacs.—P.A.