BRITISH LEGIONS OF LAST CENTURY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20991, 2 April 1930, Page 6

BRITISH LEGIONS OF LAST CENTURY.

TO THE EDITOK. Silt,—l was much interested in the articlu concerning an Auckland.-veteran and Garibaldi's vising in your issue of March 20, An obvious error in it is the statement that the British Government despatched a force to help Italy. Austria was at peace with England, and such a step would bo tantamount to a declaration of war, and would have caused a war. The British Legion was entirely a volunteer movement raised and paid for by the vast number of Garibaldi sympathisers in Great Britain; the whole country at that time w.as going wild with enthusiasm. No doubt the Government winked at the whole thing, or the expedition —I fancy nearer 600 than 1000 men—would have been stopped. IJy eldest brother, the late C. D. Whitcombe, a civil servant in the Audit Department, Somerset House, with other civil servants, members of the ' London Civil Service Volunteer Corps, were members of the British Legion. They all forfeited their positions, and were debarred from reentering the civil service. At the close of the campaign my brother, like Captain Newby, came to New Zea-, land, took part in the Maori War, and later on was appointed first provincial secretary and then commissioner of Crown I lands for Taranaki. Garibaldi was a born leader of men, having many points in common with Signor Mussolini, with less persona] ambition, but more of a visionary. His wife was a wonderful woman, sharing in all his campaigns and dangers, and being an inspiration to the men. You will perhaps recall an almost similar; —if smaller—movement amongst Britons to assist an oppressed nation in the early thirties of last century, when Greece fought for, and obtained, her freedom from Turkey, in what was generally known as the campaign oi the Palieri and Pirajtis. Amongst the many Englishmen taking part were Lord Byron and a number of officers on leave, etc. My father, then a captain in the Royal Madras Artillery, H.E.T.C., oh a throe years' furlough, formed one of the expedition in command of a small battery. England was then at peace with Turkey, despite which she closed her eyes to the breach of neutrality, as in the Garibaldi incident.—l am. etc., S. F. Whitco-kbe. Dunedin, March 31.