NEW ZEALAND IN WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18174, 21 August 1922, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND IN WAR.

A REVIEWER'S ADMIRATION. CORRECTION WITH EMPHA£4S. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.^ LONDON. July 7. Recently Captain Peter Wright contributed a review of the New Zealand official history of tho war to the Sunday Times. Like majjy others in this country, his admiration for the part played by the Dominion in the great struggle seems to have had some influence on his accuracy. In any case, a correspondent, in the last number of the Sunday Times, feels it his duty to set the matter right. " I yield to none," he says, " in my admiration of New* Zealand men who fought in the great war, and my gratitude, reverence, and lore for the memory of Nevr Zealand men who gave their lives are too deep and too sacred for assertion It is, however, difficult to read with patience what Captain Peter Wright says in reriewing tho New Zealand official history of the war. "Captain Wright implies that New Zealandcrs fought purely for love of the Old .Country, while we of the United Kingdom fought for self-praserration. He says they had nothing to gain or lose by coming in or abstaining. In the_ event of the Allies being defeated, their soil would not have t«en touched, he 35361* t-S- ---" The facts are, as every thinking man knowts—including Captain Wright—that defeat for the Allies meant defeat for New Zealand, as it did defeat for Canada, defeat for South Africa, and for ©very scrap of the British Empire that could bo named, down to the tiniest rock m any corner of the world that lives under the 0l " Captain Wright says 'the whole manhood was enlisted.' WeU, * not, and that's the plain, blunt truth. Leaving aside conscripted men, the Ula Country enlisted a higher percentage of ito manhood on a vofuntaiy basis tian did New Zealand, tins despite the fact that wo had Toluutary service for only about two years, while New Zealand ha it all the time the war lasted. On top of that, the Old Country supplied the personnel of the navy, and what we did in munitions is history.