CONSTANT FLOW

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20828, 6 July 1942, Page 3

CONSTANT FLOW

AMERICAN DIVISIONS AUSTRALIAN OBSERVANCE WAR SERVICE ROUTINE (9.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 6. For the first time in Australia, American Independence Day was publicly celebrated on Saturday as many men of the United States forces were given, leave, but generally the celebrations fitted into the routine of war work, thus following the example of General MacArthur who started work at his. headquarters at 6.30 a.m. and spent the great part of the day in conference with high United States and Australian officers. In an Independence Day broadcast to America, the Allied land commander in the south-west Pacific, General Sir Thomas Blarney, spoke of “the continuous arrival of American divisions in Australia. “I am proud to have under my command divisions of American troops,” he said. “They have impressed us all with their freshness and youth, and with their determination that liberty shall prevail throughout the world.” General Blarney recalled j the co-operation between Australian ' and American troops in the Great War, and said that the warm relations established in those tense days had formed the foundation for friendships that were increasing in numbers with the continuous arrival of American divisions in Australia. In Canberra the foundation stone was laid of a new £BO,OOO American Legation. ' The American Minister, Mr. Nelson Johnson, described the project as one signifying the faith of the United States Government in Australia to 1 endure and prosper as a great nation. Legation Foundation Stone An impressive ceremony was witnessed in Martin Place, Sydney, where Colonel Dawson, officer in charge of a detachment of American troops and army nurses placed a wreath on the cenotaph in remembrance of the United States and Filipino troops who fell in the battle for the Philippines. The programme of sporting events at the Sydney Cricket ground included an exhibition of American touch football and a basketball match between Americans and a New South Wales State team. The crowd of 40,000 rose to their feet and cheered when a squadron of Allied fighters swooped to within 100 feet of the grandstands. Inter-party boxing contests and a ball in the Town Hall were held in the evening. ' Similar functions were held in Melbourne and special American food was a feature on the canteen menus. In Adelaide 2000 United States troops passed in a mile-long parade. One of the biggest crowds ever to jam the city was amazed by the troops’ range of equipment.