H.M.S. ACHILLES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 26 February 1940, Page 4

H.M.S. ACHILLES

CROWDS VISIT WHARF [United Press Association j AUCKLAND, 25th February. Auckland’s chief week-end attraction was H.M.S. Achilles and crowds of people visited Central Wharf to-day to look at the cruiser’s battle scars from the quayside. Hundreds also went down on Saturday and even the afternoon rain squalls did not deter many from standing in the wet and seeing the shrapnel holes for themselves. Special traffic officers were on duty to control the crowds. Harbour board officials estimated that up to the middle of this afternoon at least 15,000 people had gone to the wharf and the crowds continued long afterward. Members of the general public were not admitted to the ship, but they seemed quite content to stay on the wharf. Cameras were not allowed. Members of the ship’s company who had not yet gone on leave took relatives and friends aboard and the ship was gay with summer dresses. The mayor of Auckland, Sir Ernest Davis, who on Friday cabled the Lord Mayor of London conveying fraternal greetings to the captains, officers, and ships’ companies of the Exeter and the Ajax, received yesterday the following reply:— “Deeply grateful for your cablegram which I read to those assembled at the Guildhall luncheon. It was a most happy circumstance that you received the captain, officers, and men of the Achilles to-day while those of the Exeter and the Ajax were received here We reciprocate your kindly thought.”