THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS DELEGATES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16247, 27 September 1918, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS DELEGATES.

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

ENTERTAINED BY THE MINISTRY OP INFORMATION. Tho six journalists selected on behalf of tho press of Now Zealand to represent it in the mission to England organised by tho Ministry of Information reached 1 London on July 26, after crossing tho Atlantic from New York. They wore met at Liverpool by representatives of the Ministry of Information and officials from the High Commissioner’s Office, and conveyed by motor to tho train leaving for London the same afternoon. On tho trip down the party had the pleasure of seeing General Richardson come on tho train at ono of the stopping places. He came into one of the reserved carriages which were occupied by the New Zealanders, and added very largely to the pleasure aud interest which the whole of the party experienced in traversing the highly cultivated and beautiful country through which they passed. London was reached about 10 p.m., and the delegates were conveyed in motors to the Waldorf Hotel, whore accommodation had been provided, and where tho visiters had their first experience of tho food restrictions which people have to put up with. It is, for example, not possible to get sugar at any meal, and bread is strictly confined tq one small roll made of wholemeal flour for each person. Butter is provided in very small pieces—ono small portion little bigger than a five-shilling piece, and no thicker. People accept the position quite good humouredly, as of course, they ought to do. Spirits are not supplied at meals, and if anyone chooses to purchase a bottle of whisky outside, ho has to pay 20 shillings for it. On tho day after their arrival the delegates were invited to luncheon by Lord Beaverbrook, whore they met General Sims, Colonel Elliott, Major Evelyn Wrench, and other well-known men engaged in war work of some kind. It was anticipated by the guests that tho luncheon would bo an informal and purely social welcome from the Minister at the head of the special war matters which come under his control, but after the pleasant all-round talk which took place during tho luncheon, Lord Beaverbrook at its close expressed his great pleasure at welcoming the members of the press of New Zealand who had been chosen to visit England in response to Ills invitation. He congratulated the Dominion on the splendid way in which it had responded to the call made on it by its Government for help in the war, and in an able and eloquent speech told tho talc of England’s own great work in converting the peaceful factories and engineering shops throughout tho land into huge hives of industry for tho manufacture of munitions of war of all kinds. The extraordinary transformation of peaceful England into a land throbbing with energy from end to end in tho construction of engines of destruction would, the said, ho shown to the press delegates in all its details, and they would then bo taken to see the Grand Fleet of the Empire in its massive strength and enabled to realise that in tho final resort in tho great clash of arms that is rending tho nations of tho earth, if it came to such a final resort, victory would bo assured. Speaking in eloquent terras of the reasons which had induced tho Imperial Government to ask pressmen of the overseas parts of the Empire to visit England, Lord Beaverbrook said that the Government, recognising the magnificent work which those parts of the Empire had performed, considered it their plain and manifest duty to place

before the dominions and dependencies of the Empire an opportunity of judging through the representatives they sent what an enormous task Britain had before it when the war commenced and how wall she had fulfilled that task. Further, the delegates would be taken into the confidence of the Government with respect to many important matters it had to consider, both in relation to present-day issues and to the no less important questions that would engage their anxious consideration when the war was over. _ In so taking the delegates into their confidence, he wished them clearly to understand that they would be left to form their own unbiassed opinions of whatever was placed before them, and to place before the people of New Zealand the conclusions they had arrived at. While it might not be permissable for them to publish all that they would be told, or indicate all that they would ho ''shown, they would be helped to come to a sound and intelligent _ judgment on important matters which, with otherwise imperfect knowledge, were apt to be misunderstood. The delegates would also bo taken to France and to the battlefront, and tbero they would realise not only what England had done in the' service she had rendered to her great ally France in their joint effort to repel the invasion of a ruthless foe, hut also what the frightful sufferings of that courageous ally had been, what devastation of her fertile lands and destruction of her happy villages and towns and cities had taken place, and what appalling sufferings had been endured by her unfortunate people. In responding to the cordial welcome that had been extended to them by Xjord Bcavorbrook, the chairman of the delegates (Mr. G. Fenwick) said he felt it to be quite impossible to reply adequately to the powerful speech to which they had listened from their host. Ho had in forcible and lucid terms dealt with England’s magnificent work in raising the splendid army that had shed lustre on the nation, and in transforming England’s unpreparedness when the war commenced to her present wonderful condition of industrial energy—a condition which enabled her to turn out all the munitions she required for her own army, but materially to help all her allies in this respect. It was a truly wonderful record, and would for all time be regarded as practically achieving the impossible. Mr. Fenwick spoke of the determination of the people of New Zealand to support tbe Empire in its groat task until such a peace is secured as shall for all time make Germany realise that she has utterly miscalculated the strength of the nations arrayed against her, and that never again will she be permitted to menace the peace of the world. He expressed his appreciation of the Imperial Government’s action in taking the newspapers of the overseas dominions into their confidence with the object of enabling them to form a clear and sound-judg-ment on the vital questions tiny Government had to determine, and said the delegates would go back to New Zealand with a widened knowledge of those issues and a profound satisfaction that Now Zealand’s assistance in the war had been such as to earn the appreciation and thanks of the Government and the people of Great Britain.