S.A. War Miles Conference Has Social Sidelights

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22915, 6 April 1949, Page 4

S.A. War Miles Conference Has Social Sidelights

Veterans of the South African War who travel from New Zealand to attend the jubilee conference to be held in London this year will find their comrades in the Old Country anxious to welcome them into their homes, as well as to provide opportunities for sight-seeing and other entertainment on a generous scale.

Six delegates to the conference, selected by ballot by the New Zeaalnd headquarters of the South African Veterans’ Association, will leave for the United Kingdom in May, travelling by the Mataroa. Other veterans expect to accompany the official party, and they will share in the entertainment and hospitality prepared in the Homeland for their coming.

An indication of the interest which prospects of the conference have aroused in the United Kingdom is given in a letter received by Mr. J. V- Scott, Gisborne, from Mr. J. E. G. Watts, of the Cranmore, Isle of Wight, branch of the Imperial association of South African War veterans. Mr. Scott is an honorary member of the Cranmore branch, with which he was in correspondence for several years before relinquishing the post of secretary of the Gisborne branch.

N.Z. Contingent Offered Welcome

“It is the wish of this branch that all New Zealanders who attend the jubilee conference should visit the isle of Wight and meet our members,” states Mr. Watt, who further mentioned that he would meet the Dominion delegates at the London conference and would discuss arrangements there for an extension of their itinerary to include the Isle. Provisional arrangements for the conference include a major reunion of delegates at the Duke of York's headquarters in Chelsea on Friday, July 15. This building is familiar to many New Zealand servicemen, among them members of the New Zealand contingent which attended the Coronation of King George V in 1911. The contingent which included Mr. Scott, was included in the Duke of York’s headquarters during the stay in London. Field-Marshal Wavel! Will March

The real conference proceedings will open on Saturday, July 16, when delegates will gather at 10 a.m. for the first session. The day will be enlivened by an official lunch for delegates and their wives, a late afternoon tea, and an evening gathering. On the following day there will be a further lunch for delegates and their wives, and at 2 p.m. all veterans available will muster at the Guildhall Yard for a parade to St- Paul’s Cathedral. This parade will move off at 2.30 p.m. and will pass the Mansion House, where the salute will be taken by the Lord Mayor of London, himself a South African War veteran. Field-Marshal Lord Wavell will lead the parade, and the company will include the Earl of Athlone and many other distinguished veterans. A band of the Brigade of Guards will play the veterans through the short march, and after the cathedral service .will escort them back to the starting-point for dismissal.