SEEING THE SIGHTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 249, 2 August 1941, Page 2

SEEING THE SIGHTS.

AUSTRALIANS IN LONDON. SAVOY LOUNGE SURPRISE. LONPON, July 1. A fashionable gathering in the Savoy Hotel lounge, including high Army officers, was surprised last night to see three bronzed Australian soldiers walk in carrying their jackets and with their shirt sleeves rolled up. The Diggers, who were the first to be seen in London for months, announced that they were “broke,” but* wanted to see inside some of London’s ‘'low dives.” They were invited to join a party of Australian and American journalists, to whom they 'said that they belonged to Australia’s “Forgotten Battalion,” consisting of several hundred expert buslimen left behind when the Australians went to Egypt. They had since Ijeen engaged in forestry work in the north of England. All were disappointed that they had not gone to Egypt. _ * One member of the battalion, they said, recently disappeared and turned up after a fortnight. He then announced that he had' “hitch-hiked” to London, where he joined a bomb-dis-posal squad. He was injured when- a bomb exploded, but said lie was happier now because lie felt lie had been in action.

Australia House reports that it has just completed the furnishing of clubrooms for the use of these men when on leave in London. It is also trying in various ways to make them feel that they are not forgotten.