H.M.S. DUNEDIN SIAILS TO-DAY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22017, 15 February 1937, Page 10

H.M.S. DUNEDIN SIAILS TO-DAY

FLAGSHIP FOR THIRTEEN YEARS

MEN RETURNING TQ THEIR HOMES (HISS ASSOCIATION TSLSOBIH.) AUCKLAND, February 14. H.M.S. Dunedin is to leave at 10 a.m. to-morrow on her journey to England, after having been flagship of the New Zealand station for nearly 13 years. With her hull fresh beneath a coat of new paint and with her long paying-off pennant trailing in her wake, the" cruiser will slip down the harbour from Devonport on her final journey to England. Commissioned in 1919, the Dunedin was a comparatively new vessel when she came to New Zealand in May, 1924. Here she has grown up in honourable service. She has seen no fighting, but her record in other respects is a notable one. And she has provided a home and training ground for hundreds of officers and men who have, for various terms, filled her complement. A successor has been appointed, a larger vessel just off the slipways. So H.M.S. Dunedin-is going Home. Homes and Wives Nineteen officers and 390 men will go with her. The cruiser's departure will perhaps not mean a great deal to a group of New Zealand ratings who will join the new vessel, the Leander, for her outward voyage. Nor can certain Imperial ratings who came out with the Achilles, and are returning, be especially interested in the farewell. But many of the officers and men are completing two years of overseas service and they, too, like their ship, are going Home. "We have had a great time here," an officer said yesterday. "But it is good to be going home."

There are others, however. There are Imperial ratings who have married since their arrival in New Zealand. They must bid their wives "good-bye," and must look forward to a reunion in England. There are also New Zealand ratings who are being lent to the Imperial Navy for a term.

Preparations for Sailing: Several passengers will travel to England by the Dunedin. An invalid from another warship will be taken home to his people, an officer of the Pliilomel will leave for service elsewhere, and a probationary naval schoolmaster will go to England for a course of instruction. A sublieutenant and four ratines of the New Zealand Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve will travel as official representatives to the Coronation.

Officers and men have been preparing for departure for a considerable time. The ship is being painted and stores are being taken on board. Ex-, tended leave was cancelled some lime ago. Now it is obtainable only from day to day. It will expire finally at V a.m. on Monday, three hours before the ship sails. The paying-off pennant, 300 feet of white calico, with a golden balloon at the end, will be hoisted from the Dunedin's foremast at 8 a.m. on Sunday and will be lowered at 5 p.m. It will again be run up at sunrise on the morning of departure and will remain up as the vessel steams away.

EARLIER COMMISSIONING OF H.M.S. LEANDER

(mess association teleobau.) WELLINGTON, February 14. The Minister for Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, announces that the programme for the return of H.M.S. Dunedin to the United Kingdom has been modified to permit her arrival at Sheerness a week earlier. This arrangement will admit of H.M.S. Leander being commissioned for service in the New Zealand Division on April 30, in time for her to take part in the Coronation naval review.