DISTINGUISHED SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17234, 9 August 1919, Page 8

DISTINGUISHED SOLDIERS.

WELCOME IN CHRISTCHURCH. INDIAN ARMY GENERAL. [BY TELEGRAPH.— association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. A civic reception was tendered !to-day to Brigadier-General A. W. Andrew, of the Indian army, a native of Christchurch, as chief guest of honour, and Lieutenant S. Frickleton, V.C. Other guests "were Private W. L. Bennett, one of the youngest soldiers in New Zealand, who wears the 1914-15 ribbon and three foreign decorations, and Mrs. Nicholas, mother of Sergeant H. J. Nicholas, V.C., of St. Albans, who did not live to return to his native city.

In the course of Lis response, General Andrew said ha thanked the Mayor for drawing the attention of those present to India and Mesopotamia. " I often wish," he said, " that the people of this Dominion would take more interest in Asiatic affairs and peoples. All that the Japanese or Hindoo or Chinaman or Mahommedan asks of us is that we should know him. How many of us are honestly trying to do so? We hear too much of the so-called barbarism of (the peoples of Asia and too little of the widely-diffused happiness and contentment, the universal respect for law. and order, and the all-pervading spiritual life of the people of that continent."

In his speech Lieutenant Frickleton said civilians were doing their best to help the returned soldier back into civil life, and while cases would be met with in which soldiers thought they were not being fairly treated, he thought it was as much their own fault as anybody else's, for if they brought their cases before the proper authorities (they would receive sympathetic consideration.