WELCOME TO ACHILLES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 February 1940, Page 7

WELCOME TO ACHILLES

AUCKLAND PREPARATIONS

GREAT MILITARY PARADE

[FEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.]

AUCKLAND, February 20.

Extensive preparations are being made at Auckland to welcome the Achilles when she arrives. The streets will be decorated, and employers will be asked to grant special leave for their staffs between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Queen Street will be closed to vehicular traffic for three hours, during the march through the city to the Town Hall for a civic reception ■of a detachment from the Achilles.

The biggest military parade held in New Zealand for many years will take place in Auckland city, when about 6000 officers and men of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Territorials, and secondary school cadets will parade in honour of the ship’s. company of H.M.S. Achilles. The first greeting to the light cruiser, fresh from her victory off Montevideo, will be from officers afid noncommissioned officers of the 3rd Echelon of the Expeditionary Force in camp at Narrow Neck and from Territorials on duty at the forts. They will line the North Shore clitfs and cheer the Achilles into the harbour. Units of the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force will take part in the parade, marching to the Town Hall. More than 3000 secondary schotal cadets in the uniforms of their respective- units, and all Auckland Territorial units, will line both sides of Queen Street froiß the central wharf to Myers’ Street, leaving a lane through which the detachments and the units of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, the Expeditionary Force, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force will march to form a gigantic guard of honour outside the Town Hall. The detachment from the Achilles will leave the central wharf at 11 o’clock, after the parade has passed, and will march up Queen Street between the ranks of Territorials and cadets to the Town Hall. It will then form up facing a platform to. be erected outside the Town Hall, from which addresses will be given.

The parade, representing the naval, military, and air forces, will be commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel N. L. Macky, M.C., Officer Commanding 21st (Auckland) Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

CREW PRAISE CAPTAIN.

AUCKLAND, February 20

The unbounded admiration of all members of the crew of H.M.S. Achilles for the skill and courage of their captain (Captain W. E. Parry) is expressed in letters to relatives in Auckland. The men say that to Captain Parry’s superb control was due the escape of their ship with such little damage.

“We all assembled and congratulated him upon the honour conferred on him by the King,” says one of the letters. “He said that he wished he could cut it up into pieces and give all of us a bit. In his speech he said he could not have done anything if it had not been for us.”

“The captain was hit in the leg,” says another letter, “but he refused to leave the bridge, and it is to him and the way he handled the ship we owe our lives. He seemed to know just where the shells would land, and always got out of the way a second before they burst in our wake.” “After we had buried our dead at sea, the next day,” says the same letter, “the captain gave us a lecture. It was very hard for him not to break down as he told us how proud he was of his ship and men, and the way they had behaved and fought under fire. He said he had never expected the results he got, and after the show we put up he was not frightened to take us up against anything. He is a marvel with his ship, and there is nothing the men would not do for him. It won’t be our fault if he ever leaves this ship.” *‘Our captain visited every mess on the ship, and words cannot describe the reception he got," states another letter. “It is a long time since I have seen one man command such respect and admiration as he did yesterday.”

RUSH FOR TICKETS

AUCKLAND, February 21

There was a big rush, to-day. for next-of-kin tickets to admit to the reserved central wharf, when the Achilles arrives. Last night, the Mayor sent 350 telegrams to the immediate next-of-kin, the replies coming to hand from all parts .of the Dominion indicating the attendance will be extensive.

Decorations are being arranged in the city and harbour, including flags and bunting on Achilles Point, flying Nelson’s signal.

Primary and secondary schools will close. The Police Court will hold the briefest session. Most workers will be given a part-holiday, and it is expected that the city will be thronged with a record crowd. Pleasure craft will meet the Achilles as she approaches the harbour.