A WELCOME HOME FUND.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 102, 27 October 1900, Page 4

A WELCOME HOME FUND.

The news of to-day that Lord Roberts will presently return to England and that 700 of the Australian troops are about to leave Pretoria for Capetown on their way home is a manifest sign of the beginning of the end of the Transvaal trouble. It is reasonable to suppose that the recent military conference presided over by the Commander-in-Chief made all provision for the future 'control and government of the country for some time to come, and in this early return of so considerable a draft of Australians we seem to find assurance of belief pn the p # art of those best able to judge that there will not be any long-sustained continuance of the present guerilla warfare. The colonial troops are admittedly the best men for the work that yet remains to be done, and release now from further service on the field of 700 of .our continental cousins seems sign that tho holding down of the conquered territory is not likely to prove so formidable an undertaking as we had anticipated. As we may, it now appears, soon have word that a cpnsidcrable body of our own lads will be turning their faces homeward, it is time that we began in earnest to prepare a fitting homecoming. They have served their country and the Empire in fashion that has justified our proudest hopes, and lit will be a sorry thing if we do nob welcome their return with the same enthusiasm that marked their departure. There is every desire to c?o so, but that il may be well done two things are essential — money and organisation. We would suggest to his Worship the Mayor that the time has come to call a preliminary meeting of citizens for the purpose of inaugurating a "Welcome Home Fund," and the organising of a committee of management to make such arrangements for the occasion as will be worthy a national event.