AUSTRALIANS' VSIT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 21

AUSTRALIANS' VSIT

PREPARATIONS FOR 1940 ARRANGEMENTS BEGUN BY RETURNED SOLDIERS (run association WELLINGTON, July 2«. Appreciation of the reception and hospitality given to the New Zealand contingent which visited Australia this year for the Anzac Day celebrations was expressed by the Dominion Council of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association to-day. Hie council, which is meeting in conference in Wellington, confirmed the invitation already given to the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Imperial League of Australia* to return the visit in 1940, New Zealand’s centenary year. In a discussion on preparations for the entertainment of the Australians should they accept the invitation, Mr J, D. Harper suggested that local associations should be recommended to raise a subscription of 2s a member. This would provide £3OOO towards the cost of entertainment. The chairman (the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C.) said the present scheme was for the Australians to move throughout the country and concentrate m Wellington for the Anzac Day celebrations. t It followed that many arrangewould devolve upon the local associations. In the meantime delegates could go back and arrange for subscriptions to be collected, as suggested by Mr Harper, and be placed in a separate fund. .. .. Mr W. D. Shelton (Gore) said his branch was to move as a remit that headquarters apply for permission to run an art union. _ , , Mr Perry: Surely the New Zealand Association is not going to entertain its Australian friends by means of art union. ~, As illustrating the state of public feeling about the value of the recent Australian visit, he had been handed two donations of £5 and oneof £2S for the reception of the Australians, said Mr Perry. There was to be a conference of Australian associations in Newcastle in September. If the New Zealand invitation was accepted the conference would formulate , its plans for the trip. The Sub-Committee” of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association had met the Internal Affairs Department, and the Prime Minister (the Rt Hon. MJ. Savage) had given an assurance that New Zealand would do for the Australians what they had done for the New Zealand contingent