Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, FEB. 25. 1910. COMING HOME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14846, 25 February 1919, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, FEB. 25. 1910. COMING HOME.

The return to New Zealand of the Main Body men is an event tbat should be signalised with demonstrations of jpyj iii all New Zealand tq\vns. These men when tho Umpire became involved hy war were the first to volunteer fo. service abroad and t]iey. have .sjjeflt. oyer four strenuous years— the . bes,t years of their lives— in upholding .the honor of New Zealand. How welfr they hatfe done' it we know from the eucoiiiums ife&t have been passed, on tluv New Zealand Division and from its wonderful record of war service. ' Perhaps the men of/.fche. Main Body would say. that they should not be singled out ipr any special distinction over the thousands of others; \yho have also volunteered and gone to the front, including, even the lads of 20 in the latest drafts, nor would they • want to be counted greater heroes tl*ap the boys -who have already returned wounded or invalided, all of have "done their hit" faithfully apd well/, but all - the same the occasion is one for special 'rejoicing, for the arrival of these troops signifies tbe war's end so far as the New Zealand Division is concerned* these fine fellows being but the> forerunners of • thousands more of our fine boys who are coming home as fast as transports can be provided for them. We think that oach returning draft should now be welcomed with at least, the same degree of .enthusiasm as that with which they were sent away. The public should- make a point of assembling to -greet them, flags should be -flown, and generally they Bhould be givon evidence that their < war - services are not 'unappreciated. These mon who return to New Zealand from military service abroad will come back with a love of their own land intensified. Tl-ey will be changed. Tho great adventure cannot leave them as they are. They • will be found to . have deepened and broadened in experience. Many of them went away boys and they return men. "The liberal education of travel must have benefited our soldiers," says an

'•American writer. "Amongst the French, and also in England, our men have Been [ what it means to save and be frugal and to utilise the odds and ends. They j will .be more critical of waste than they jwere, and"' those ■'.. of them; who are [thoughtful 'will de*plore extravagance of., food. .For they have seen the wistful , .faces •:- af •, little children who s felt the;, j ; pinohV of • hunger. ; They have . witnessed . sorrowful, caravans (of, They have pbehield- the returning ; groping >in the ruins of" their homes, ', and they have known the fervent grati- f tude of 'a ' countryside rescued-, from ; under the. iron heel- of the Hun./"Moreover, they \ have * been impressed !^sth, , the real.' family life of France that the cynic dawdling on the boulevard does not observe; they have met the earlyrising,^ late-toiling peasantry of devout and ■» simple creed and scrupulous practice. The children have shown them rare examples of fortitude and efficiency , in the care of their elders and the siok of their own households. Tbe French and Belgian farmers have given valuable lessons in what can be produced from the soil by intensified farming. From a distance of thousands of miles a new perspective has been acquired." New Zealand should benefit by the experience that the boys have gained. They are 'the future mainstay of our population and their views will be impressed upon our political and social affairs. Let us give them alt a hearty welcome as they come back to take their places amongst us. They are worthy of it. What John Buchan wrote about the British soldiers tbe other day is equally applicable to the New Zealanders. "The men who have survived to advance towards the Rhine," he wrote, "have come out of far greater perils than any survivors of the Light Brigade. The human memory at the best is short, and to-day our minds have been a little dulled by living amongst .so many tremendous things; but if there is any decency in the world we should set those who return to us from the battle-ground in a privileged place for the rest of their days. The dead are beyond our poor recognition, but for the sake of all that is right rfhd' honest, let us honor the living. The King told us the other day that 'the deeds of the 9th, 15th, 51st, and 52nd Divisions will live for ever in the honored pages of history.' Let them live also in our minds. A man who took part, say, in the re-, treat of the 9th Division on the Somme and again in their stand at Wytschaetc, has done something for which the Garter would be but a poor reward. The war has been won hy plain folk,, what, we call 'ordinary men,' though in the field they proved themselves most extraordinary* men. .It is only just that in peace they should come to their own. They have saved the world for liberty, and, please God, they shall henceforth have the ordering of the world which they have redeemed."