New Zealand

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 26, 24 December 1917, Page 2

New Zealand

MESSAGES TO THE TROOPS. The following message has been sent to the New Zealand troops at the front by the Prime Minister: Another Christmas comes 'round and finds the British Empire still fighting with inflexible determination against the foes of liberty and civilisation. To the officers, noncommissioned officers and men, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force I send on behalf of the citizens of the Dominion our heartiest greetings and good wishes, and again assure them that our hearts and thoughts are with them wherever their duty calls them. \Vc rejoice with them iu their successes and mourn with them in their losses. Although the end of the war is not yet in sight, we look with a just pride on the great deeds that have been done by our soldiers on the battlefield, and from these we take courage for the future, looking forward with calm confidence to the victory which must come. Kia ora ! ' Sd.) W. F. MASSEY, Prime Minister.

Sir Joseph Ward cabled to the overseas troops as follows : “New Zealand is justly proud of the achievements of her gallant sons. You hoys, who are thousands of miles away from home and loved ones, have upheld the host traditionsl of your race ns a. fighting force. You have proved yourselves equal to the best soldiers in the world. Your achievements at Gallipoli, on the Somme, in the Holy Land, and in other theatres of this great war will stand out in history as the record of hold and fearless men who have been reared in a free and democratic country. “New Zealand mourns the loss of those who have gone down in this great fight or civilisation, but 1 am sure you all feel, as T do, that it were, better to die upon a foreign strand than come under the yoke of an inhuman and unscrupulous foe.

“Good luck to you .nil! May your Christmas ho as bright as circumstances permit, and may the New Year he the dawn of a hotter day for the whole world. Lot us hope that in 191 S the joy hells will ring out for a lasting peace with honor, and that the death knell \vill sound over the corpse of Prussian militarism. “.1. G. \VAPT).’’