VISIT PROM QUEEN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 23, 7 November 1940, Page 6

VISIT PROM QUEEN.

LIFE IN FORESTRY UNIT.

EXPLOITS OF THE PADRE. A visit from Queen Alary, the exploits of the Royal Air Force as seen by a New Zealander, and the lighter side of camp life are described in a letter from an officer in a New Zealand forestry company now in England after- service in France.

“One bright day not long ago,” he writes, “I was going about my work at the mill when out of the green woods came a figure all in Mary of England! She came into the mill and I chatted with her quite a while. She wanted to know how we liked our milL AA r e said, ‘No good, Your Alajesty; it’s old-fashioned.’ She asked what happened to our proper mill. AVe said Hitier had it (in France). The Queen said King George had a soft spot in his heart for New Zealand, and she was coming hack to spend more time with us.

“The padre is the greatest ‘scrounger’ (for our welfare) I have ever seen. At a sherry party some nice lady said: ‘Are you and your men quite comfortable in your quarters? Is there anything you want?’ ‘Yes,’ says the padre, ‘we could do with a grand piano.’ A startled look from the lady concerned; a grin from behind tho padre’s pipe. The padre sticks to his guns, and sure enough along came a grand piano. Our moss chairs, tables, settees, easy chairs, pictures, standing

lamps, radio, etc., all came from ‘the padre on tho prowl’!” Descriptions are given by the officer of' several “dog fights” which ho lias seen above England. Here is one:— “A bright, cloudless sky, a silver speck streaks across ‘Hun hell-bent for home.’ On the ground a Spitfire pilot sits outside his hut drowsing. His

fighter a hundred yards away, its motor warmed, its gun belts full, sits like a graceful bird. Suddenly tho alarm. The

pilot is awake, running, and into his machine like a flash of light. A mighty roar, straight off the ground he goes—straight as a rocket. How these ‘Spits’ can climb! Right into the track of the fleeing Hun he goes—a roar of eight machine-guns the German machine folds up like a paper hag.”