BATTLE HONOURS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18234, 30 October 1922, Page 9

BATTLE HONOURS.

RECORDS ON COLOURS.

WAR OFFICE REGULATIONS.

The War Officij announces that the King has approved of the award to regiments and corps of the battle honours won by them in the war. Regiments and corps will have awarded to them, and recorded in the Army List, in addition to those already shown, the honours due to them for taking part in the battles enumerated in the report of the Battles Nomenclature Committee. Following the honours previously earned and at the head of the list of honours granted for the late war to be recorded in the Army List will be placed "The Great War," and the number of the battalions of the regiment taking part; thus:—The Devonshire Regiment—"The Great War" —10 battalions, Mons, Marne, Aisne, etc. Regiments of Cavalry and Yeomanry, battalions of Infantry, Regular, Militia (Special Reserve), and Territorials, will have emblazoned on their standards, guidons, and colours not more than 24 honours, of which not more than 10 will be "Great War" honours, to embrace the whole history of the regiment concerned from the date on which it was raised to the end of the late war, such honours, to be selected by regimental committees from the list of honours to be shown in the Army List. The honours emblazoned on the colours will be the same for all units comprising the regiment concerned, and will ha shown in the Army Lis-t in thicker

type. The guiding principle in the selection and allotment of battle honours will be that headquarters and at least 50 per cent, of the effective strength of a unit in a theatre of war (exclusive of drafts which, although in a theatre of war, had not actually joined the unit) must have been present at the engagement for which the honour is claimed. Regimental committees under the chairmanship of their regimental colonels, or of representatives to be nominated by the regimental colonels, will be set up to select the particular honours., for regimental colours. Commenting on this Army Order, a military correspondent says at first sight it reads' almost as though no regiment or corps was to possess more than M battle honours altogether, and that any already possessing that number would have to "scrap ' some of these to make way >for any honours earned in the great war. Jtt- is probable, however, that it is not considered that there is room on the colours of a battalion for more honours than a total of 24, and that regimental committees are to be assembled to select, first, the honours to which they consider their corps entitled for the great war, and then to decide which of these, together with those already won by the regiment in past campaigns, shall be numbered among the 24 to be emblazoned on the colours. The effect of this must, of course, be that some of the old honours must be removed from the Colours to make room for the new honours. There would seem to be no limit to the number which will appear after the title of the corps in the Army List or wherever such distinctions are now shown.