ANDES MEN HOME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21854, 26 October 1945, Page 4

ANDES MEN HOME

DELIGHTED WELCOME

ALL-SERVICES GROUP

WELLINGTON INCIDENTS

Though the start from Wellington was delayed yesterday and the special train for Hawke’s Bav and Gisborne was an hour late at Palmerston North, the men from the Andes draft of personnel returned from the United Kingdom reached Gisborne only a few minutes behind the advertised hour this morning.

All three services were represented in the party for Gisborne, army and airforce personnel far outnumbering the naval officers and ratines who, however, held their end up well in the various quiet exchanges of handinage that invariably mark such journeys.

For many of the men the deeper impressions of war service were overlaid with sardonic memories of the slow iournev across the Tasman Sea and the PeneraHy-aeceated explanation of the delayed arrival of the Andes at Lyttelton.

Official explanations of the delayed arrival had a poor reception among the returning personnel, by whom it was believed that the date of arrival had been set back deliberately to avoid interference with the Labour Day holiday at the main ports. This belief was apparently based, in many cases at least, on contacts with R.N.Z.A.F. and army personnel from New Zealand who had ioined the Andes at Sydney to organise, durin" the journey across the Tasman, the details of disembarkation of the troops News from Headquarters Men

According to some of these men the Andes’ arrival had been scheduled for October 21. and the setting-back other berthing was decided on only within the past few days. Obviously these aliened statements Were based on wrong information, since the ncting-Prime Minister, the Hon. W. Nash, explained at Wellington that the arrangements for the Andes’ berthing at Lyttelton and later at Wellington were of long •'tending.

Rightly or wrongly, the men on the A ndes felt they had a grievance and they took it out on the official welcoming party and all who came near the ; r ship at Wellington. The approach of the tender Janie Seddon there was the signal for a barrage of caustic comment. most of it levelled at those who bore the Government’s welcome to the troops. The master and crew of the tender shared in the showe>* of remarks however, and the advice offered to the master regarding the handling of his graft and his passengers was uproariously funny for all who stood outside the torept area. Not Bad-Tempered Horse-Play It was noted, however, that though one nr two eggs were tossed at the Janie Seddon. they were hard-boiled and therefore not as objectionable in their effect as raw eggs would have been. Moreover, fhev were not aimed at anyone in particular, judging by their fall. The demonstration, though it undoubtedly had an edge of real temper, '"as in the main a good-humoured one. Those aboard the Andes were delighted to see their native islands again, and thev were in no mood to spoil a good day bv crossing swords in earnest with the authorities. When the train reached Gisborne this morning shortly after 1 o’clock, it carried about 70 men of the three services and one woman member of the F. A.N.Y., who hod served with the A.T.S. in Britain through the greater part of the war attaining commissioned rank and arriving home a junior-commander. There was a large crowd waiting to witness their arrival, and next-of-kin lost little time in whisking the veterans "ff to their respective homes. The behaviour of the spectators at the station was exemplary, and next-of-kin were not hampered by an undue press of people on the platform. The men were a little jaded by the long rail journey, but all were in good form and the majority were looking extremely fit. A substantial number were ex-prisoners of war who had spent some months in the United Kingdom recovering from their experiences in enemy hands and incidentally taking advantage of the educational and social opportunities extended to them by the British people there.