RETURNED SOLDIERS’ LUNCHEON

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 104, 27 January 1938, Page 6

RETURNED SOLDIERS’ LUNCHEON

Trip To Australia

MORE THAN 1300 TO VISIT SYDNEY IN APRIL

There was a large and interested audience at the monthly luncheon of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, when the Dominion president, Hon. W. Perry. M.L.C., spoke on the coming visit to be paid to Australia by New Zealand returned soldiers. Lieutenant-Colonel A. Cowles, president of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association, was in the chair. On April 19 two ships, the Maunganui and the Monowai, will leave Wellington carrying more than 1300 members of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’" Association on their way to the sesquicentenary celebrations at Sydney. They will take part in a parade through Sydney on Anzac Day and will lead the procession to the cenotaph on that occasion. The following message lias been sent to the New South Wales branch of the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Imperial League of Australia: “The New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association desires to convey to the Government and all concerned best wishes for the opening of the celebrations. We shall be with you for the grand climax on Anzac Day.” “Ho would indeed have been a bold prophet who, in 1915, when the word Anzac was coined, foretold that 16 years later a statute of the Imperial Parliament would have granted- full rights of nationhood to the self-govern-ing Dominions of the Empire,” said Mr. Perry. “And even such a prophet would have failed probably to observe that by an almost extraordinary coincidence 'the word Anzac comprises the initial letters of the names of those self-governing Dominions, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Canada. So we ex-soldiers here to-day congratulate Australia on her achievements over the last 150 years and express the hope and confidence that she will go from greatness to still further greatness.” The negotiations that led up to the present arrangements being completed were outlined by Mr. Perry; and he said that on arrival at Sydney the ex-sol-diers would lay a wreath on the cenotaph. The wreath will be made in the shape of New Zealand. The members making the trip will be able to sleep on the ships during their six-day stay there.

Two Australians will arrive in New Zealand to make the trip across the Tasman, one on each ship, and they will instruct the New Zealanders concerning the route to be taken by the procession and the movements involved in the Anzac Day Parade. The New Zealand Government has provided free transport in New Zealand for all making the trip, and the party will arrive at Sydney on April 23. There will be a parade through the streets of Wellington and an official farewell by the Prime Minister at the War Memorial on the day of departure. v What Might Have Been. “I wonder how many Wellington and Sydney people will reflect tfhat might have been the position if the war had gone the other way,” said Mr. Perry. “Australia and New Zealand would have been German colonies, there would have been no League of Nations to administer New Zealand had the Germans won the war. This expedition and the rest of the Dominion, would have been hewers of wood and drawers of water for a German master. No more splendid gesture of goodwill and affection could have come from our splendid comrades than this invitation to partake in their celebrations and to lead their procession.” A warm tribute to the generosity and co-operation of the Union Steam Ship Company was paid by the speaker, who mentioned also that it was particularly fitting that the Maunganui, the flagship for the contingents in 1914, should agaiiTcarry the members of this expedition. “There will be one difference,” he said. “AU those who are leaving the Dominion’s shores this time will have a return ticket.” Mr. H. R. Biss proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker for his address.