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A Message

From Lieutenant-Colonel F. G. M. Jenkins, DCM

It gives me the greatest pleasure to be given this opportunity to record the affection and admiration which I have, and shall always have, for those who were my comrades in Fiji and New Caledonia. I am sure that no soldier was ever prouder of his command than when I took over the command of all the ASC in Fiji, then a comparatively small force, but expanded to a strength of over 2,000 a few months later.

I doubt whether any but those who took part in the peace-time training of the NZASC could conceive how much this training meant to us, and in what wonderfully good stead it stood us when such rapid expansion became necessary. No truer advice was ever given than this: 'On the outbreak of hostilities the ASC will have to function at top pressure.' When that time really arrived we felt we had available the necessary nucleus of trained officers and NCOs. From a peace-time establishment of some 330 officers and men the strength of the NZASC grew to a maximum of 12,000, and it would be both ungracious and unjust to ignore, even in a chronicle devoted to the performance of the ASC overseas in the Pacific, the wonderful spirit of co-operation which existed among those serving in the corps in New Zealand.

I sincerely wish all ray comrades happiness and success. None of us is ever likely to forget the times we spent together, nor our tradition 'to deliver at the right time and place everything required by the fighting soldier, no matter what the difficulties.'

Set Up, Printed and Bound in New Zealand by Hutcheson. Bowman & Stewart Ltd. Wellington 1948