LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15001, 24 May 1912, Page 8

LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

i •*- '— •:'; A NEW ZEALAND COMMAND. The movement for the establishment of a command of the Legion of Frontiersmen in the province of Auckland, is steadily gaining ground. ; During the past fortnight inquiries:' from intending applicants for membership have poured in on the honorary secretary, and a keenness and enthusiasm is being displayed in the country that augurs well for the future, ■Commands are also being formed: in Poverty Bay and Hawke's \ Bay districts, ■'' and the movement is to be- initiated in' Other ■; provinces this winter. ' The committee, which is dealing with the preliminary work of organisation; will meet to-morrow evening in order to arrange for the holding 6f a public meeting, at which prominent public men Will deliver addresses on the movement. ; A gathering will also be held in Hamilton i during- Winter Show week, * * The'-' Legion of • Frontiersmen, is entirely a voluntary movement, a free offer of service to the Empire by men who place love of country before and* above all other considerations. The legion has now 42 squadrons formed in Great Britain, '. one on ' the Mediterranean stations, * five in British Columbia, six or eight in Canada, one in Newfoundland, one in Brazil, one in the Pacific Islands, thirteen in South Africa, nine in the Far East command, including two maritime corps and a special service corps, one in Fiji, ' several formed and others forming in Australia, and there are sub-units in Peru, Egypt, Northern Nigeria, and several in Burma. 'The legion in British East Africa has recently been officially proclaimed a permanent field force. In New Zealand it has the permission of the Defence Department to send in a scheme whereby it may be included in the reserves, and it hopes to shortly be able to obtain recognition as a permanent field force in the Dominion. The Government is training the youth of the Dominion, but this leaves the older hands out, and the Legion of Frontiersmen wants those older ones, and will organise them. It is hoped by headquarters in London to muster an organised command in .New Zealand of at least two regiments, but tho committee in Auckland believes it can raise a' regiment in this province alone. There is no stated period of service and no age limit.. Each member has hi« rifle not as a wall ornament, but as a known and constant comrade, and each man wear! a little bronze badge, that bears tho words "God Guard Thee," charged > on the" Union Jack. These words were- the inscription that ■■'was engraved,'in Chinese characters, oh the ring worn by the great hero, Gordon, of Khartoum, and the'words had a particular significance, for the European women and children who were brought out '■ to safety from the hells of fire and murder in China during the recent revolution by a little band of frontiersmen, -led by a Canadian wearer of the bronze badge. ;.'-