GENERAL'S TOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24631, 9 July 1943, Page 4

GENERAL'S TOUR

STAY AT ItuTUIiUA BACK IN AUCKLAND TO-DAY (S.Jt.) ROTORUA, Thursday The General Officer Commanding the Second N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East, Licutenant-General Sir Bernard I' revberg, Y.C., will arrive in Auckland from Rotorua and wayside towns tomorrow afternoon. Immediately afterwards he will attend a reception being arranged by the R.S.A. in the 'lown Hall, the time being 5 p.m. On his way from Rotorua, which he will leave by motor-car at 9 a.m.. General Freyberg will make the following stops for the purposfe of attending receptions:—Cambridge 10.30 to 10.45 a.m., Hamilton just alter 11 a.m. to about 1 p.m., Ngaruawahia Pa JI-.15 to 2.15 p.m., Huntly 2.30 to 2.45 p.m., and thence direct to Auckland. Maori Gathering General frevberg will be accompanied to Auckland by tho Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Eraser, who joined him in Rotorua to-day. At Ngaruawahia Princess Te Puea has arranged a .Maori gathering. When he arrives in Auckland General freyberg will have completed a New Zealand tour of about 2500 miles, the greatest part of it in nine days' travelling. Ho has stopped at almost 60 cities and towns and spoken at most of them. In one day he made as many as 15 speeches of varying length. '1 hose who have travelled with him have been amazed by the warmth of the welcomes he has everywhere received. They say the tour can only be described as triumphant and add that in their experience tho one other tour which has equalled it was that of the Prince of Wales in 1920. Letters From Children Throughout his tour General Freyberg has been deluged with hundreds of letters, the majority of them from relatives of soldiers of the New Zealand Division, many from invalided troops, others from men who knew hint ia the last war and scores from chlidrcn. One envelope which lie received yesterday contained individual letters from every child of a school. At the expense of his own rest, which he has gladly ignored. Genera! Freyberg has made a faithful attempt to answer every one of the letters he has been sent', but it has been an impossible task to do this. Although the extra time spent in Rotorua was arranged mainly to give him a rest, General Freyberg was busy practically all the time. To-day he had two public engagements and many private ones, lie spent about two hours in the morning with the returned N.Z.E.F. soldiers who are patients in the Rotorua Convalescent Hospital and at night he received a traditional Maori welcome in the new meetinghouse at Ohinemutu, where there were thronged Maoris from all parts of the Rotorua district.