TROOPS’ DEPARTURE

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1940, Page 12

TROOPS’ DEPARTURE

SCENES AT FAREWELL. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, December 11. 1 Some months ago a large party of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force left for overseas with a feeling of relief —relief that, after weeks of waiting and doubt, they were on their way to fulfil the task foi which they had volunteered. Rumour, with its customary inaccuracy, had had it that these thousands. of men would not leave New Zealand. It was with every evidence of satisfaction that they filed aboard the leviathan transports awaiting them. It may now be stated that this party has safely reached its destination. It must have been one of the swiftest embarkations on record. The first troop train reached the wharf as many civilians were leaving their beds. At noon, five hours later, all but a few hundreds of the men had found then seagoing quarters. Seasoned by their extended training in the land which, whether by birth or adoption, spelt [homeland to them all, their militarised bearing as they embarked for overseas gave them almost the air of tried campaigners, and lent substantial confirmation to the view expressed by Great War veterans-that as a whole they made one of the most promising military -forces the latter had seen. Less obvious proof of their discipline was to be found in the carriages vacated at the ship’s side after carrying the i men through the long hours of the ■night. Random glimpses into any of these cars showed that they remained ’clean and in excellent order, with any waste, fruit parings, etc., neatly gath'ered at one end—a ‘Small matter but a great token. ■' As they went aboard, the men exhausted for themselves the string of delighted exclamations at their quarters which previous departures must have rendered familiar both to embarkation officers and to officers and men of the merchant navy who have by now helped to carry thousands of troops from the Dominions to immediate war zones. Once cabins had been found, lounges explored and the chief communication routes of the ship discovered, most of the soldiers applied themselves to writing eleventh hour letters and postcards to relations and friends at home. Simultaneously the expert loading and disposal of accessory supplies and equipment was completed.

As the precedent of a previous sailing had led a tireless public outside the wharves to expect, the harriers were drawn in time to admit the crowds to the quaysides a few minutes before the last ropes were cast from the moorings. Scores of mothers, : wives and fiancees enjoyed fleeting last words with the menfolk whom they | had waited patient hours to see, and /then, at short intervals the ships drew inexorably away and another contingent of New Zealanders was on its way to the arenas in which tyranny is being withstood and overthrown. Among those who visited the troops on board, watching numbers of them enjoying their first meal in the ships’ messrooms, were the Prime Minister, ,Mr. Fraser, and the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, the Minister of Railways, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Langstone and Mr. Armstrong. All the Ministers watched groups of the men alighting from the trains and wished them well. Later, Mr. 'Fraser was to be seen comforting a woman among the crowd, who was moved to tears by the grief with which everyone had to contend as the ships, every deck and vantage point in the rigging dark with cheering soldiers, moved out towards the stream.

There they were farewelled during the afternoon by the Governor-Gen-eral, whose launched circled the transports to the resounding cheers of the men. Initiation in lifeboat drill and assignment to boat stations filled in the waiting hours in the stream. Probably the most intriguing thing ! about the wait at anchor both for those aboard and those watching from shore, was the manner in which one of the transports was seen to be gently swaying back and forth with the aid of her [Herculean if Lilliputian tug. The explanation was that the equipping of •this vessel with the anti-mine Degaussing apparatus had been completed only after the vessel’s arrival in New Zealand. This entailed adjustment of her compasses, a highly delicate operation, before she put to sea with her priceless freight of thousands of the Dominion’s youth, civilians become soldiers “for the duration.”