DID NOT WANT TO BE HEROES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 134, 2 March 1936, Page 8

DID NOT WANT TO BE HEROES

Five Friends Who Signed Pact SHY OF CROWDS AND PRESS CAMERAS If the five young men who made a pact at Christchurch ten years ago to meet on the steps of the General Post Office, Wellington, on February 29, 1936, could have foreseen that the document was to make public heroes of them for a day, they would, no doubt, have thought twice about signing it. As events proved at noon on Saturday they did not want to be heroes. When one of them, after much persuasion, described for publication on Saturday morning how the compact originated (with the reservation that no names were to go in the paper) he told a story that captured the public imagination and made celebrities out of quiet young business men overnight In giving “The Dominion” the information of this “quiet little arrangement” he omitted to reckon with the tremendous drawing-power of newspaper publicity. When the signatories fulfilled the obligation of their signatures (all five kept the appointment) by appearing suddenly as the Post Office clock struck twelve, the “quiet little arrangement” was completed before the eyes of several hundred people assembled out of curiosity stimulated by the story in that morning’s paper. Embarassed under the start- of so many eyes, they made quick, warm hand-clasps and turned to escape. The pact had been honoured in spirit, but not to the letter, for they had forgotten about the clause stipulating the post office steps as the place of greeting. The incident was over before most of the onlookers were aware of it. A traffic officer stationed there to regulate the throng held up a motor-car, facilitating the flight of the five, to the chagrin of reporters and news paper camermen. “Be a sport, and give us a picture,” they pleaded. The one among the quintet they addressed w,as a theatre manager from Auckland whom they thought would, appreciate publicity. Hoist with his own petard, he bolted, but with another of the five was seized by the arm by the Pressmen, while several in the crowd echoed, “Be it sport! Get your photos taken!” With a shrug, the five friends drifted back looking as if they wished they had contracted to meet at midnight, instead of midday, were photographed, and lost no time in carrying out that part of their agreement which stated, “We shall then proceed to an hotel to celebrate the reunion. .”

That night one of the five telephoned ‘•The Dominion” office. "You might like to know that we have signed another agreement to meet again in ten years’ time —on March 3, 1946,” ne said. “Where?” he was asked. “Pieton.” “Why Picton?” “No reporters, no cameras—we hope,” he replied, and hung up.