GREAT WELCOME TO COMMANDER

Southland Times, Issue 24011, 29 December 1939, Page 4

GREAT WELCOME TO COMMANDER

GENERAL FREYBERG CHEERED

ADDRESS TO PEOPLE AT WELLINGTON

CROWD SHOWS PARTIALITY TO CONSCRIPTION

(United Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 28. Rising to its feet in a burst of spontaneous cheering a vast and enthusiastic gathering in the Town Hall gave a fitting welcome to Major-General B. C. Freyberg, V.C., D. 5.0., C. 8., C.M.G., whose appointment as commander of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force has met with approbation throughout Great Britain and New Zealand. His qualities of leadership, contempt of danger, solicitude for his men and other attributes that have made his exploits in the last conflict almost legendary were extolled by representatives of the Wellington City Corporation, the Government and returned soldiers of the Dominion—in the words of the Hon. P. Fraser, they were paying a tribute to a great leader in whom rested the greatest confidence. Replying, Major-General Freyberg,. who was received with prolonged applause and musical honours, said he took the wonderful reception as a tribute to the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He would be wanting in imagination and perception if he did not realize there was a deeper note to the reception than a mere formal expression of welcome to a stranger within the walls. That they remembered him and claimed him as a citizen after 25 years’ absence showed they had long memories and kind hearts. He assured them that in the time he had been away he had been a staunch and determined New Zealander. By nature New Zealanders were rather adventurous. “We like constant changes and I assure you the life I have been leading for the last five weeks has made me rather wish for a period, of short repose.”

FAST TRAVELLING He said that three weeks ago he was at General Headquarters in France with the British Commander-in-chief FieldMarshal Lord Gort and afterwards went to stay with General Conde, a most distinguished French General commanding a group of armies in the Maginot Line. A few days after m company with the Hon. P. Fraser they were travelling by air more than 13,000 miles to get to New Zealand before the first echelon of the division left for overseas. While in France he had the chance of speaking to the Commander-in-Chief who was of his own regiment and younger French staff officers from Burfaus. They all expressed the greatest interest in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. General Conde said he remembered the first New Zealand Division in 1918. They were the most remarkable troops he had ever seen. They had the greatest reputation with the French people, not only for behaviour in the line but behaviour and universal courtesy wherever they went in France. Major-General Freyberg endorsed the Hon. F. Jones’s remarks about the excellent work done by the staff corps and Major-General J. E. Duigan, D. 5.0., C. 8., in particular. Everywhere he had gone he had received the greatest help and the greatest assistance by the General Officer Commanding home here in New Zealand.

CO-OPERATION IN COMMANDS “I don’t think anybody outside military circles can realize how important it is that Major-General Duigan, who commands here in New Zealand, and I, who am to command overseas, should know and understand each other’s difficulties and work in close cooperation. I would go so far as to say that the most important part of my visit here is to establish those personal relationships with the general officer commanding here and ensure that close co-operation is established. And may I here pay a well-deserved tribute to Major-General Duigan for the assistance he has given me here.” Major-General Freyberg also paid a tribute to the spirit of the people of Britain and France. . “While I was staying with the French,” he said, “I was struck by the enormous confidence of their soldiers, not only of their senior soldiers, but also of their junior soldiers. I was struck also by the tremendous friendship’ that they had for everything British. I said to General Condi: ‘lt seems to me that the French nation has altered its opinion of the British. We always got on well in the last war, but I had not. met with such kindness and consideration.’ ’’ KINDNESS OF FRENCH Major-General Freyberg related that if he travelled in a train the guard wrote out the stations, the times of arrival and so on, and on one occasion a train was stopped to allow him to get a sandwich. He was impressed by the kindness of the French. General Conde’s reply to him was: “Yes, it is so. We feel that the French and the British destinies are linked together in a way they have never been linked before.”

Major-General Freyberg asked the audience to imagine an army deploying across farming fields, digging trenches, putting up pill boxes and interfering with everyday life as the soldiers were now doing in northern France. He added that he said to some of the British soldiers: “Isn’t it rather trying for these farmers?”

They said: "No. They are wonderful. They never complain. They are most welcoming and helpful and most determined.”

CONSCRIPTION IN ENGLAND “Then let us take England,” continued the General. “They have taken conscription in their stride. (Prolonged applause and cheering). Yes, but they have also taken taxation in their stride. (Laughter and more applause.) It is seven shillings in the £1 they pay and when it was announced in the House of Commons they cheered. (Applause.) “Then there is the spirit of quiet determination of the people. There is no outward show of patriotism and I can only tell you that in the command I was commanding on Salisbury Plain I had somewhere about 50,000 troops. The whole of the coqking, the whole of the serving of the food to the men and the whole of the lorry driving, ambulance driving and car driving was all done by women. (Applause.) I cannot tell you of my admiration for these girls who joined up, starting at 6 o’clock in the morning and doing a solid hard day’s work in, the heat of cookhouses and all the clerical work. I had 11,000 of these girls who joined up as private soldiers and live in barracks and do all the work of Salisbury Plain.”

Speaking of the situation in Europe, Major-General Freyberg said it seemed

to him that there was a feeling of unreality about this war and that it was different from the last. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you that exactly the same feeling, to a modified extent, exists, in England; also among the troops in France. The real reason is that as far as the Allies are concerned the war has not yet started.” He was not one of those who had the opinion, so widely expressed, that the German nation was short of food and. just waiting to revolt against the Nazi leaders, said Major-General Freyberg. He believed the German nation was still behind its leaders and that when it was ordered to move forward against the Allies it would attack They might not be the same blatapt, truculent, well-fed Germans who were thirsting for war as in 1914. He thought the present-dqy Gerfnans resembled the German nation we knew in 1917, but we must remember that the whole setup of the German nation at present was bounded by propaganda of the most complete nature and control of the civil population to an extent that was immense and, at the same time, encouraged, as we must admit, by a degree of success that had not been achieved hitherto.

Major-General Freyberg said that Germany was afraid to resort to indiscriminate bombing of open towns because her aeroplanes and pilots were inferior to the British and French, because her industrial areas were vulerable and because her air bases were not so well favoured as the Allies.