CAIRO CHRISTMAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 2, 3 January 1942, Page 6

CAIRO CHRISTMAS

JOY IN HOSPITAL

MEMORABLE CELEBRATION

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F). CAIRO, January 1. Christmas in hospital was a gay and generous surprise, more filled with traditional customs than the average celebration at home. We have the hospital staff and the people of New Zealand to thank for a really cheerful anniversary.- After the building had been brightly decorated with streamers, balloons, and flowers, all the other plans were kept a dead secret from us. On Christmas Eve, red-cloaked sisters revived a delightful old hospital custom as they filed through the darkened corridors, bearing candles. We heard their voices rising and falling right through the building. Early the next morning each of us received, from the New Zealand Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society, a Christmas stocking filled with useful and practical gifts. Then a colourful pantomime horse pranced down the hallway., Santa Claus, with cottonwool whiskers, j was at the reins and distributed gift parcels from the people of New Zealand. These were excellent in quality and choice of contents. Fifty New Zealand cigarettes were also given to eachpatient. Next a Maori choir party brought homesickness to many hearts by serenading us with beautiful part-sing-ing, in rich, unaccompanied voices. And Christmas dinner—shades of bully-beef and biscuits! cried someone across the hall. I had soup, roast, turkey, green peas, baked potatoes, onions, and plum pudding and brandy sauce. Afterwards came nuts, sweets, and ale.