ABOUT PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 17971, 12 March 1917, Page 5

ABOUT PEOPLE

A London cable states that Lieut, G. W. Callender, of the Worcesters, son of the general manager of the Bank ol New Zealand, has been killed. A London cable reports that the Duchess of Connaught was attacked by influenza on 13th February. Measles have developed, accompanied by pneumonia, and her condition is disquieting. Lieutenant-colonel W. L. H. Burgess, D.5.0., formerly of New Zealand, who was attached to the Australian Forces when war broke out, and who went to Egypt with the Main Body of the Australian Expeditionary Force, has lately been awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Private advice has been received by the parents of Private A. T. Critchfield that he is seriously ill with pneumonia at the sth British Red Cross Hospital in France. Private Critchfield was one of the first to offer his services and left Now Zealand with the Main Body. He went through the Gallipoli campaign, and has since served in France. That Great Britain has found a master in the person of Mr Lloyd George is the opinion being freely expressed by latest arrivals from Hotnev When interviewed on his return from England, Dr A. K. Newman, M.P. for Wellington East, said Mr Lloyd George was the long-sought-for Man of Destiny, and all Great Britain, every man and every woman, was behind him. "Whatever he says, goes. He can say anything and the people at once respond, as quickly and as obediently as an army obeys a general. The crowds of people who used to curse that •damned pettifogging little Welsh attorney’ are now ills willing, faithful army of unquestioning backers. Lloyd George orders and Great Britain does as he orders. 1 bought papers fromerly hostile to him after he overthrew the Asquith Government, and none sneered. AH agreed he was the man they had all wanted." The Lloyd George Ministry had delighted the people because he chose the biggest business men in Great Britain to manage the different departments. Lloyd George, in picking his Ministry, cut adrift from old traditions and picked men for their abilities and for no other reason. He was the head of a wonderfully able Cabinet —the ablest in Great Britain’s history.

Writing to his mother, Mrs G. Groves, Ettrick street, Invercargill, under date lath January, Rifleman John Groves mentions that he is now working on the staff of the 2nd New Zealand General Hospital, Walton-on-Thames, 16 miles from London. Rifleman Groves was lucky enough to get right through the Somme fighting unscathed. He describes it as three weeks "of absolute hell.” Rifleman Groves' luck did not stand to him, however. When the New Zealand division was withdrawn from the Somme front, the troops returned to the line at a place 60 miles distant. Rifleman Groves had only been four days in the trenches when he was wounded, this being his second experience. He was shot through the back, carried two miles to a dressing station, and operated on straight away without any anaesthetic. “It didn’t half hurt,” he writes. However his sufferings were all over at time of writing and he was in a good job. Rifleman Groves mentions that he had seen some of the best jumping horses in England over big country at Windsor and Epsom. He expected also to go to the Liverpool Grand National. He was In London on Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. Rifleman Groves wrote in excellent spirits, and sends regards to all his Invercargill friends. His brother. Private G. Groves, is still in France.