PREMIER WITH TROOPS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 192, 16 July 1941, Page 7

PREMIER WITH TROOPS.

ENJOYABLE INTERLUDES,

(Bee. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, July 15. Mr Eraser, standing on a log at a New Zealand-constructed and designed sawmill in Wiltshire, talked, with 200 men of the New Zealand Forestry Unit for half an hour, telling them the experiences of "our mates" in the Middle East. The men, leaning on their rifles and smoking, listened attentively. Mr Eraser shook hands with everyone. Mr Eraser and Mr Jordan, in, their shirt sleeves, were photographed sawing a log.

A roar ot laughter greeted a wag's query: "Are you happy in your work?"' A bigger roar followed Mr Jordan's unhesitating reply: "No! Wo want New Zealand tobacco." This rejoinder delighted the men, who presented a deputation to Mr Eraser and discussed the shortage of tobacco and other subjects, including their desire to be transferred to the Middle East. Mr Eraser next visited a mill in Gloucestershire where he was by Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood, who lives nearby and is a frequent visitor to the camp. Mr Eraser shook hands! with 50 men and repeated his talk. I The men at the mill also sent a deputation to Mr Eraser with similar requests, j

Lord Birdwood said : "I know the New Zealand troops jolly well. There are none hotter in the world. I was not surprised at their behaviour in Greece."

[Lord Birdwood commanded the Anssacs from 1914 to 1918.] j _Mr Frasor later met newly-arrived New Zealand airmen at an operational training unit where they are learning to fly Wellington bombers. Mr Eraser, en route to Swansea, called on Lord and Lady Bledisloo at Lydney Park. Mr Eraser, while in Bristol, talked with a woman who was four times bombed out of her home and narrowly escaped with her life. She smilingly greeted Mr Fraser, who commented: "You Bristol people arc making history to-day. There is no doubt of the outcome of the war while the blitzed cities of Britain maintain their unconquerable spirit."