SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10868, 7 April 1921, Page 9

SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE

BROTHERHOOD ©F WARRIORS: - LORD HAI<Fs~ADDRESS. The bond Of union . and sympathy that was created during the war between the soldiers of the Motherland and of the Dominions was referred to recently by -Lord Haig, upon his arrival at Capetown' to preside at the Empire Conference of delegates from ex-soldier organisations. ‘‘l regard this Conference of Empire ex-service men that I came here to attend,” he said, “as an event of the very first importance in the history of our race. We have had Imperial Conferences before, and I, hope we shall have many more of them, but this conference of ours springs from no considerations of politics or statecraft —it is the meeting of a brotherhood. “We old warriors, under whatever skies we were born or have our homes, have a bond between ns that goes beyond and deeper than all considerations of interest, or commercial or political convenience. We have shared the same dangers and the same joys, the same hopes and the same fears. We have striven together for a. common victory, and together we have won through. That is a bond that must last while memory lasts, and while children reverence the name and honour of their fathers. It is a bond that should revitalise everything that tends to keep our mighty Empire together as the greatest civilising force the world has yet seen. “Long may men he found who will leave all and cross broad oceans to fight for right and justice beneath the flag that stands for freedom. If this conference should help, as I am confident it will, to keep alive the spirit that inspired the men who came to join me in. France—to fight and, maybe. to die there for a great ideal—then, indeed, shall I be glad to have revisited South Africa once again.”

A special exhibition in the Auckland Art Gallery wil be hold within the next month, -when the pictures purchased in Europe ion behalf of the Maokelvie Tiustees by Dr. T. W. Leys will be hung for public Inspection. Sixteen of tlie pictures have already arrived in Auckland and have been unpacked. The remaining two are still in their cases. For the purpose of the exhibition a frame is being erected in the gallery. It is difficult to say whether there is direct connection between bowls and rifle shooting (wrote ft Nelson correspondent recently), but F. W. CJhine, exchampion rifle allot of New Zealand, has recently taken on bowls, and has won the champion of champions tournament at Nelean,