WAR SERVICE IN NAVY’

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28758, 2 December 1958, Page 2

WAR SERVICE IN NAVY’

Talk By Captain R. Rhoades “You cannot fight a war successfully unless you keep it a long way from home and fight it in the other fellow’s backyard,” said Captain R. Rhoades, R.A.N., Australian naval defence representative at the Australian High Commissioner’s Office, Wellington, making a brief reference to the navy’s part in war, yesterday. He was speaking at a luncheon held by the women’s auxiliary of the Canterbury branch of the Navy League, held in his honour at the National Party Rooms. Captain Rhoades, who was in command of the H.M.A.S. Vendetta in the Mediterranean in World War 11, told of his ship’s hazardous runs between Alexandria and Tobruk, delivering supplies and returning with wounded servicemen. He also discussed service given in the same area by the Australian naval flotilla, which included five old vessels sent to Australia by the Admiralty In 1933. Captain Rhoades was welcomed by the president of the auxiliary (Mrs W. Thacker) and thanked for his talk by the president of the Canterbury branch of the Navy League (Mr P. D. Hall). Specially-invited guests included Captain J. N. Allan, commanding officer of the Canterbury Division of the R.N.Z.N.V.R., and Mrs Allan; Lieutenant-Com-mander J. S. Pallet, staff officer of H.M.N.Z.S. Pegasus, and Mrs Pallot; and Mrs G. C. Oldham, wife of Captain G. C. Oldham, R.A.N.