THE NEW ZEALAND ARMY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11917, 27 January 1917, Page 9

THE NEW ZEALAND ARMY.

TRIBUTE BY LORD NORTHCLIFFE. ! HIGH PRAISE. | United Service, j (Received January 27. 12.5 p.m.) ! LONDON, January 26. ! Lord Northcliffe, -writing from British j lio.'idquarters, says! ■" Before tho days when the Strand j began to be decorated by tall young I men in khaki, from the dominions, we I thought New Zealand footballers were I picked men, but the day we spent with | New Zealand's army in Franco is proof j of the wonderful physique of the ordi- j nary New Zealander. Something in j "he climate of Now Zealand snakes j things grow. The New Zealand army j is a compaot, well-equipped family, ! mostly open-air men, perhaps wit}), an j advantage of lighting instincts kept { a lire by the Maori wars, whilst women' s i buffrago proved thera militant in a just ! cause. New Zealand women axe as anxious as the most eager of the Allies to quell .Prussianism. I found the .New Zea landers in tho muddiest and flood lest- scene imaginable. The .streams liad swollen into rivers, and rivers into lakes. Tlie cold, drab, cheerless surroundings of General Russell's head- I quarters were partly submerged. Gen- j oral llussell is a typical New Zealand j gentleman, and sheep-farmer, with harsh j ways for Prussians. | " After lunch we travelled miles over j the snowy slush of I'landers roads. The .Maoris were working excellently as pio- j neers to tho battalion. Sir Douglas j llaig had just reviewed the New Zea- I landers, and ho praised the men eu- ! thusiastically wlien speaking to me, but ; I was hoc prepared for the size of these ! handsome fellows.'' - General God ley told me that their | good health and physique enable the [ New Zealanders -to stand the rigours ; of the northern winter. The Anza-es ' miss the sunshine, but they do not. | grumble. i "The New Zealanders occupy a fair i front line stretell, ami their billets, > rest camps and lines of communication ■ £'■> back a. long way. forming a little New Zealand world in France. '' \\ ar lectures are a great feat ure bell'] d tho lines, where the New Zealandrrs closely follow technical expositions regarding the use of complicated wea- ! polls and all subjects of modern war- ' fare. if anything could have saved j Gallipoli it would liave been the fine: work of the Australian;, and New Zea- ! landers and the Twenty-Ninth Division, but it was not until the Somme that j the Anzacs received a chance of par- ; ticipau'ng in a great success. Some experts regard the preliminary home naming of New Zealand as too long, find t-nink tluit it- might be wiselv cur - | tailed, finishing their actual training in j ■n tho war «one, where troops learn ( quicker and are also taught the newest ' ~ devices in iruuiceuvres. Dominion troops . have fourteen weeks' hard drill in England before going to France. The teachers' only complaint is that tho ; Anzacs are not taught the right kind of bayonet practice. l'he New Zealanders' organisation jn France is a well piled machine. Although the 2sew Zealand army is only a microcosm of Sir .Hum" s *wonderful force, it gives an excellent idea of what the model British array should be. '" The New Zealanders told me that they were satisfied with all arrangements. particularly the English training. In the Brockenhurst, New Forest and Walton Hospitals there were 2000 patients. "The high-pki-ced Rritis.il officer told mo that tho Now Zealanders as individual fighters were equal to any in France, and particularly praised some work by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, working in a special area, who outwitted the Germans every time, not permitting a single instance of tho Germans surprising the British. "When New Zealand's small population is remembered, we are better able to realise the splendid contrast between the finely organisd antipodean crusaders and the levied, massed and . -unwilling Poles. Czechs, Turks. Ruthenes and Slavaks whom Prussia has bullied into the trenches."