BELGIAN ORDER OF THE CROWN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3489, 25 January 1921, Page 6

BELGIAN ORDER OF THE CROWN.

COMPLEMENT TO NEW ZEALAND. WELLINGTON, January 19. The Prime Minister, Mr Massey, was formally invested with the Order of the Crown of Belgium to-day by M. Henri Seg-aert, Belgian Consul-general to Australasia. The decoration was conferred upon Mr Massey by the King of Belgium in recognition of the work done during the war by the Government and the people of New Zealand, and the direct help given to Belgium by the people of the dominion. The ceremony took place in the Cabinet room, among those present being a number of Ministers, M.P.’s, officials, and public men. M. Segaert, in making the investiture, said that the order ranked among the highest distinctions his King could bestow, and his country knew it had never been better deserved than by the statesman who, since the first violation of Belgian neutrality, had led his people to their aid. Never before in the annals of mankind had there been such an outburst of sympathy and charity as was shown by New Zealand to Belgium, and that country would never forget it. It was with the intention of giving- tangible expression to this deep gratitude that the King had sent him that day to invest Mr Massey with the title and dignity of a great officer of the Order of the Crown. Mr Massey, replying, said he recognised (hat the honour was a compliment to the people of the dominion as a whole. He alluded to the sentimental tie with Belgium, because in its soil were sleeping litany of cur boys. Later on. replying to the toast of his health, Mr (Massey recalled the fateful Easter Sunday in 1918, during iho great German drive, when Mr Lloyd George cabled out asking if New Zealand coith send more troops, and that night he w:e able to reply that 5000 troops were ready and would sail in a few days, lie referred with pride to the way in which the Belginr troops had hold the Germans at bay while the Allies got ready, and he thanked tilt Consul for the distSrtion conferred oi him,