THE N.Z. ARMY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15131, 27 January 1917, Page 9

THE N.Z. ARMY.

GENERAL HAIG’S REVIEW,

HOME TRAINING TOO LONG

SECOND EDITION.

A WEUWBQUIPPED FAMILY. MAORIS WORKING EXCELLENTLY . ' GENERAL HAIG PRAISES OUR MEN. “IT IS A WONDERFUL FORCE.” Australian »nd N.Z- Cable Association.) Received January 27, 2.30 p.m. " LONDON, January 28. Lord Norttacliffe, writing from “Before the days when the Strand began to be decorated with tall young men in khaki from the Dominions we thought the New Zealand footballers were picked men. But since the day we sent the New Zealand army to France there has been proof of the wonderful physique of the ordinary Now Zealander. There Is something in the climate of New Zealand which makes things grow. The New Zealand army is a compact, well-equipped family, comprising mostly open air men, who perhaps have the advantage of having their fighting instincts kept alive by the Maori wars, whilst women’s suffrage proved militant In a just cause. New r Zealand women were just as anxious as the most eager of our Allies to quell Prussianism. I found the New Zealanders in the muddiest and fioodtest scene imaginable. Streams have been swollen into rivers and rivers Into lakes. In these cold, drab, cheerless surroundings General Russell's headquarters were partly submerged. General Russell is a typical New Zealand gentleman, a sheepfarmer with harsh ways for Prussians. After lunch -we travellel - through miles of snowy slush on Flanders roads. The Maoris are working excellently as a Pioneer Battalion.”

Continuing, Lord Northcliffe says; “General Haig has just reviewed the New Zealanders. He praised the men enthusiastically to me, but I am not prepared to size up these handsome fellows.”

The correspondent adds: General Godley told me that good health and physique enables the New Zealanders to stand the rigors of the northern winter. The Anzacs miss the sunshine, hut do not grumble. The New Zealanders occupy a fair line, a stretch of billets, rest camps, and lines of communication to the back. These go a long way to forming a little New Zealand world in Franc;. War lectures are a great feature behind the lines, where the New Zealanders closely follow the technical expositions of the use of complicated weapons and all subjects of modern warfarin If anything could have saved Gallipoli it would have been the fine work of the Australians and New Zealanders and the 29th Division. But it was not until the Somme battles that the Anzacs received a chance of participating in the great success.

Some of the experts regard the preliminary home training of New Zealanders as coo long, and state that it might wisely be curtailed, thus finishing the actual training in the war zone, where troops learn quicker and are also taught the newest devices and manoeuvres;. Dominion troops have 14 weeks’ hard drill in England before being sent to France. The teachers’ only complaint is that the Anzacs are not taughtthe right kind of bayonet practice. The New Zealanders’ organisation in France is a well-oiled machine. Although the New Zealand army is only a microcosm of General Haig’s wonderful force, it gives an excellent idea of what a model British army should be. HbW ZEALANDERS SATISFIED. Continuing bis narrative, Lord NorthcliSe says: — The New Zealanders told me that they were satisfied with all arrangements, particularly the English training comps at Brockenhurst and New Forest, and the VTalton-on-Thames hospitals, where there are two thousand patients. A highly-placed British officer told me that the New Zealanders as individual fighters were equal to any in France, and particularly praised them for their Somme work. The New Zealand Tunnelling Corps, working in a ■pedal area, outwitted the Germans every time, and not permit of a single instance of the Germans surprising the British. New Zealand’s small population must remember that we are tetter able to realise the splendid contrail between the finely organised Antipodean crusaders and the levied masses of unwilling Poles, Czechs, Turks, Bnthena. Slavaks, whom Prussia has bullied into the trenches.