NOTED VISITORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 2

NOTED VISITORS

LORD AND LADY KEYES CIVIC RECEPTION NEXT THURSDAY Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes and Lady Keyes arrived in Dunedin from the north yesterday afternoon. They were met by the Mayor (Mr D. C. Cameron), the chairman of the Otago Harbour Board (Mr R. S. Thompson) and the president of the Otago branch of the Navy League (Mr J. Sutherland Ross).

After paying a call on the Mayor this morning Lord and Lady Keyes will leave for Nightcaps, where they will be the guests of Mr Noel McGregor, of Mount Linton. They will return to Dunedin on Wednesday next, and on Thursday morning they will be entertained by the Otago Harbour Board. They will later pay a visit to Port

Chalmers, and in the afternoon they will be conducted by the Mayor on a motor tour of the city. In the evening Lord and Lady Keyes will be tendered a civic reception in the Main Town Hall. Both Lord and Lady Keyes will speak at this function. In a brief interview with an Otago Daily Times reporter last evening. Lord Keyes said that he and Lady Keyes had always taken the greatest interest in the activities of the Navy League while in Britain. For that reason he greatly appreciated the action of Mr Sutherland Ross, who, he understood, had travelled a long distance at considerable inconvenience to offer them a welcome on behalf of the Otago branch of the Navy League. “There is just one thing that I would like to stress again,” Lord Keyes said, “and that is the importance of the Fleet Air Arm. Now that Britain has such a formidable force of aircraft carriers for service in Pacific operations it is more imperative than ever that this aspect of the Navy’s activities should not be neglected—for. as you know, it was sadly neglected in the vears before the war. There is a great future for the Fleet Air Arm. The Americans realised that long before we did. Amphibious operations have niaved a most crucial part in the war in the Pacific, and they will continue to do so. For this reason the navy should be in a position to make use of the many hundreds of young men who for various reasons, find themselves ‘ grounded ’ after a long period of training in the Royal Air Force. I am sure the naval air arm could find a use for them."