CAMP INVADED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 5

CAMP INVADED

THOUSANDS OF VISITORS , DISCIPLINE RELAXED TENDER LEAVE-TAKINGS Thousands of people travelled by special train and motor cars from Auckland on Wednesday to visit the troops at Papakura military camp. There were many tender leave-tak-ings. and the necessarily strict discipline of the camp was relaxed. Nearly 1300 people took the train, but for some time before the camp was opened at 3 o’clock a long procession of motor cars stretched at intervals from the' Harp of Erin corner towards Papakura, and by 3.30 at least 500 cars were parked on the parade ground near the main entrance.

The customarily rigid atmosphere that is inseparable from military life in war time was temporarily softened with the presence of women friends, whose brightly-coloured frocks, their obvious interest in everything to be seen, and their laughing faces as they clicked camera shutters in front of small parties of soldiers and their friends, did much to relieve the natural tension.

Fathers and mothers, wives and some young children, but far more young women, walked between the rows of hutments or gathered in small knots, smiling and talking about times gone by, or waited patiently near the canteen as men friends found their way through the press of people before the refreshments counter.

Here and there one saw parcels of varying proportions being handed to soldiers, the recipients acknowledging them with friendly grins or quietlyspoken words of thanks. That done, the welcome parcels were secreted in safe places, and the parties went to some comparatively quiet place to talk before it was time for visitors to say farewell.

“Good-bye: good luck, look after yourself," was the spirit in which for the most part the parting sentiment found expression.