Freyberg Thanks Perth For Kindness fo N.Z. Servicemen

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 5

Freyberg Thanks Perth For Kindness fo N.Z. Servicemen

(ID a.m.) PERTH, Dec. 10. A tribute to tiic kindness of the Perth people to New Zealand servicemen was paid by the New Zealand Governor-General, Sir Bernard Freyberg yesterday when speaking at a Parliamentary luncheon. He said his desire to thank the people of West Australia was the chief factor in making him want to come here. He stressed the debt of New Zealand servicemen to prominent West Australian citizens as well as the people generally. "Their work is still referred to with great affection bv the people of New Zealand and will be for generations to come,” he added. Other engagements of Sir Bernard Freyberg today included a meeting with the executive of the New Zealand Association and an informal reception by the Returned Soldiers’ League. Their Excellencies will leave today for the south-west where they will be afforded an opportunity to traverse the State's giant forests.

In a speech at a civic reception in Adelaide, Sir Bernard Freyberg, said that when he and the Governor of South Australia, Sir Willoughby Norrie, were in command of units in North Africa they often outwitted German generals listening-in to radio telephone conversations by using phrases such as “Bernie to Willoughby—over.” Monitored reports seized from the Germans showed that they regarded the exchanges of vital information so passed as just friendly chats between two soldiers.

Earlier, Sir Bernard Freyberg startled a ward at a repatriation hospital by suddenly shouting, “Steady, the Hood!” He then advanced with outstretched hand to greet a former able-seaman, Mr. John James Sopp, who was in the Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division in the First World War. “Steady, the Hood,” was the slogan of the battalion which was led by Sir Bernard Freyberg from 1915 to 1917.