ANGEL OF DURBAN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 8

ANGEL OF DURBAN

MISS ETHEL CAMPBELL IN

SYDNEY.

(FRO* OUR OWN CORUBSPOWm.)

SYDNEY, 25th July. Scenes of , extraordinary enthusiasm, re-echoing the fervent patriotism of wartime, marked the arrival in Sydney, with her parents, of Miss Ethel Campbell—the Angel of Durban, or the Girl with the Flags. The mention of either of these two titles has for years been sufficient to bring a sparkle to the eyes 01 every Australian soldier who passed through Durban, and the opportunity of showing in some practical form their appreciation of all that occasioned that sparkle was seized with avidity. It was a long time during the war before people here knew anything more of Miss Uunpbell than the invariable remark in the letters from their boys that the first thing on entering Durban and the last thing on leaving it was a salutation semaphored from a 'vantage point on the shor e b y a girl with flags. So people talked about the girl with the flags, and the papers had frequent paragraphs headed, "The Girl with the Flags fi — fu ?,* len Sth> as the boys came home, .the Girl with the Flags evolved into the Angel of Durban, a radiant maiden who, in season and out, in ill-favour or in good, championed the cause of the Digger while in Durban. She it was who was foremost in the efforts to provide them with good things during their stay at the African seaport; she it was who interceded with tho authorities when any of them were so unfortunate as to get into any sort of trouble; she i' was who was first to greet them when they came, cheer them while they stayed, and last to farewell them when they went. So it was not surprising that the wharf where she landed in Sydney was a seething mass of ex-dig-gers, and that no day since has been without its busy round of welcomes from soldiers' organisations, the Lord Mayor, the Government; the theatre managements, and countless others. What with renewing old acquaintances and making new ones, seeing the siehts, and partaking of endless teas ana dinners, the pretty maid has scarcely had a minute's respite, and may well add to her titular honours that of captor of Sydney. General Campbell, of Moss Vale,'near Sydney, is Miss Campbell's uncle, and the party will visit him before going to stay with other relations in .Queensland.