THE SYDNEY RETURNS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 40, 17 February 1941, Page 5

THE SYDNEY RETURNS

GREAT WELCOME

A HAPPY SCENE

(By Trans-Tasman Air Mall—From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, February 13,

H.M.A.S. Sydney, returned from her Mediterranean triumphs, was given a tumultuous welcome by the city whose name she bears.

A deafening chorus of welcome — cooees, shouts, cheers, and whistles — echoed across the water as the cruiser came up the stream. Wives, sweethearts, sons, and daughters, and thousands of -cheering onlookers thronged the'vicinity, of the wharf until the cruiser berthed.

When 400 of the ship's personnel marched through the streets of the city on Tuesday they received another enthusiastic reception from the massed crowd of 200,000 behind the barriers. The scene at the Town Hall was one of tremendous enthusiasm as the marchers came into view, followed by the milling crowd. Thousands more people surged over streets and footpaths to witness the ceremony which terminated the march. They cheered the arrival of noted figures in the public life of the community, cheered when the sailors came in sight, cheered again as the ship's company formed up before the Town Hall steps, and drowned the invitation of the Lord Mayor (Alderman Crick) for "Three cheers for Captain Collins." To ten representatives of units of the cruiser's company, the Lord Mayor then presented replicas of the plaque which, earlier in the morning, he had unveiled on H.M.A.S. Sydney.

The whole crew was then entertained at luncheon. In 35 minutes the sailors consumed 100 chickens, 12 turkeys, 6 hams, 30 gallons of soup, 561b of butter, 600 bread rolls, and 150 gallons of beer, not to mention hundreds of canteloupes, a mountain of ice cream, and 1000 pieces of fresh fruit.