HAMILTON INVADED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 189, 12 August 1925, Page 8

HAMILTON INVADED.

A CHILLY JOURNEY.

MEN BLUE WITH COLD,

(By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.', , ). HAMILTON, this day. ' Six hundred officers and men of the United States Fleet invaded Hamilton this morning. They came by special train from Auckland, and detrained at 10 o'clock, when they were met by the Mayor, members of the Borough Council, and other prominent citizens. They came in cheering and yelling, and they did not waste time on ceremony. They did not even give the Mayor time to extend a welcome, but immediately they espied a crowd of people, chiefly ladies, the first batch were oft' the train before it had time to pull up, and were streaming out towards the roadway. They left Auckland about 6.30, and had an exceedinglychilly journey flown, the carriages were not heated, and as very few of the men carried reefers, they were blue with the cold. Certainly they had a cup of coffee and a snack of food at Mercer, but the stimulating affects of this had all worn off by the time Hamilton was reached. Many of them did not wait to be tutored to a fleet fo cars waiting for them. They inquired where the nearest "saloon ' was, and made straight for it to get something, as they put it, "to set the circulation going again." '■If they.don't heat them carriages for us on the return journey, they will land us in Auckland with several hundred stiff«," one of the rating remarked. They were shivering and blue on detraining, and their teeth positively chattered as they drove away in open cars, with the cold damp air—for the morning was particularly raw—striking through their tunic. # They were driven off between lines of cheering citizens on a tour of the district, lasting one and a-half hours. At 11 o'clock the guests assembled at the Winter Show Buildings, where they were entertained to luncheon. Afterwards they were given a spell of an hour or two to wander at large. This afternoon a Rugby match will be staged for their benefit, and citizens are in the hopes of rival fleet teams giving an exhibition game of baseball.