The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1919. THE N. Z. DIVISION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11764, 26 February 1919, Page 4

The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1919. THE N. Z. DIVISION.

ON relinquishing his command of the New Zealand Division, General Rossell gave a farewell message tu the troops of almost unexampled brevity considering their long association in one of the greatest tragedies of the ages, but one, nevertheless, which contained all the most salient features of the matter. An orator, or one gifted with a more facile pen, might have made more of what after all was an interesting historical event which will acquire more lustre in thejdmes to come, Here was a ilttle army which had sailed half round the world to take a chivarlous part in a world straggle in which its immediate interests wera’only remosely involved. Its task was none. For three and a-half years it had gone, together with its General, through the grime and blood cf the most terrible war cf all time, and had emerged from it honourably, victoriously and trinmpbantlv, and the veterans were prepaiing to again embark for their homes. It was a classic occasion and one that might very fitly have been made the subject cf a commemorative painting. Events kss'important than that are treasured in the infant stages of a nation’s his'ory Bnt, as we have indicated, there was much in what- he said. He told them that '[they ;bad earned the respect of their adversaries. And there was only one way in which respect could be extorted from the Germans. That was to beat them—to prove to them in the most smashing and sanguinary manner possble that they were the better fighters and tbs better men. They had also earned the good word of those who fought by tbeiir side in tbs almost interminable line cf conflict, and most cf ns will veins that testimony to their manliness and their rectitude us much as that to their valour.

General Bussell was, however, able to say of them what has^not, 'perhaps, been said of any army of recent times, and that was that, with one exception only, every objective which they bad been sent out to tabs had been taken, and that exception had added fresh laurels to those already won because of the tenacity and resolution they displayed in the face of insuperable difficulties. That is as much as to say that if it bad possible for the New Zealand Division td take that excepted objective it would have been taken. We must, however, be careful not to claim that no Empire army or section of an Empire army could have established such a record under similar circumstances as the New Zealand army established theirs. There havd been more more glorious actions in this war than have ever been chronicled, and many of them will never find their way into history. But there is one thing which we hope never to near the New Zealand soldier do, and ihat fs to exalt himself over those of every other iaud or every other army. He has earned a position on the world’s record of famous lighters where there is none higher. Ho has established equality with the best and the bravest and that is bigb enough for anyone to claim except a blustering boaster. “Now, said the General, a word as to the fnture, ’’ ana the future now is all-important. Many thousands of men have come back, and are returning in still more thousands, who, not personally and si ugly, but in the mass, are a psychological enigma. It is impossible that they can have wrenched themselves from their conventional environment, seen wbat they have, experienced wbat they have and mixed with the peoples of a greater world than their own and not have had their political and social views on life profoundly modified. And there will be a sufficient number of them in the population to leaven it to some extent with their own principles. There are, therefore, here., as the General reminded them, victories as great, and certainly more enduring, as those they have gained at the front, These are moral victories which will still more add to their- splendid reputation as soldiers, If they come back with their minds permeated with the foolish and disruptive social and political notions which ars threatening the existence of law and order, and even the destruction of civilisation itself the tragedy of war will have an internecine political war as a sequel. What is wanted now is that type of moral victory which consists in settling down to the duties of citizenship and leaving the chase of political phantoms to more featherhead people.