CRUISERS LEAVE FOR AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 10

CRUISERS LEAVE FOR AUSTRALIA

♦ VISITS TO MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY (PBESB ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, January 20. On an Australian cruise which will occupy about five weeks, the two cruisers of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, the Achilles, the flagship of Rear-Admiral the Hon. E. R. Drummond, and the Leandef, commanded by Captain J. W. Rivett-Car-nac, left Auckland this afternoon. The Achilles will pay an official visit to Sydney to participate in the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations of New South Wales, and later she will join the Leander to take part in tactical exercises with ships of the Royal Australian Navy off Jervis Bay. The two New Zealand cruisers will carry out full calibre gunnery practice on the trip across the Tasman, but will later separate, the Achilles to go to Sydney, where she will remain from January 25 to February 7, while the Leander will proceed to Melbourne. Both ships will be together at Jervis* Bay from February 7 to 15, and then the Achilles will visit Melbourne, while the Leander will go to Hobart for the anniversary regatta. The cruisers will return to New Zealand early in March, although the flagship will visit the West Coast sounds, Bluff, and Dunedin before arriving at Auckland on March 19. The Leander will come direct from Hobart to Auckland, arriving here on March 1. The .usual large crowd of relatives and friends was.present at the Devonport naval base, exchanging farewells before the departure of the two cruisers. _