GENERAL FREYBERG

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24627, 7 June 1941, Page 6

GENERAL FREYBERG

By Major Treadwell, 0.8. E. He was always "Tiny" to his school fellows. He may have earned that sobriquet because amongst his contemporaries he was tall, or because in the great public school at Wellington, New Zealand, he captured the junior swimming championship and at the same sports meeting went on to win the senior championship from boys many years older and many inches taller. This he did on several occasions, t can still see his young browned body slipping easily through the water like an otter. Then later, when the prizes were distributed, how we rent' the very clouds above as " Tiny " of our class walked up to the table to take the prize for the senior championship while a V great six-foot senior stood behind hinrfor the second prize. His scholastic career was in no way distinguished. He went on from class to class, rarely top of his class, but always progressing. He was an eventempered boy; popular, not merely because he was a swimming hero, but because he was a manly young leader.

When he left school he selected dentistry as his profession, and disappeared into the country. His role in life, however, was not for such a humdrum existence. Action was as necessary for him as food. When a great industrial crisis shook New Zealand he helped to man a ship for overseas. His adventures had begun. In Mexico he joined in a revolution. His appetite for action was insatiable. When the Great War broke upon the world the happy warrior was indeed born. Into that catastrophe he plunged, and out of it he emerged the bravest of the brave. In the great deeds that he performed he was always serene. Wordsworth had such a mar in his mind—- " And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law In calmness made and sees what he foresaw; Or if an unexpected call succeed.

Come then it will, is equal to the need: He who, though thus endued as with a sense And lacultj. for storm ana turbulence, In jet a eoul whose master-bias leans To jhomefeH pleasures and to gentle scenes.'

"Tiny" was one of a large family of boys, all of whom were brothers in the fullest sense. They were all "to homefelt pleasures " chiefly bent. Now, after many years, how has this character developed? Since then, trained as a professional soldier in one of the greatest English regiments, he has had full scope for his sapless energy. Out of sheer merit he rose to high command. No wealth or influence were ever his helpmates.

He was selected to command the New Zealanders in this war and one has had an opportunity of appreciating the development of his character. He has still great energy The many wounds received in the last war have not affected his driving power. In the long months of waiting here in Egypt he examined every link in the chain of his command. He was restless and übiquitous. His critics might say that he ought not to have concerned himself with so many of the minor incidents. But he was forever checking and re-checking his command Dersonnel. training and equipment. The result we now know. No division of soldiers ever displayed greater' fighting qualities, elan, and finer discipline under fire than his N"w Zealand Division.

In great measure this is due to the character of its leader. He has the passion for excellence in his work and expects it from his staff. In action " Tiny" is greatest, whether it be in commanding the manoeuvres called for in battle or, as in that great and victorious retreat from high Olympus, physically exhausted as he was, though he would have denied it, he stood on the roadside in the dead of night inciting and comforting his troops as they tramped their way along. His spirits are highest in action; nis leadership best in action; his qualities clearest in action. True it is that " That is he that everv man in arms should wish to be."