RETURNING TROOPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25964, 3 October 1945, Page 4

RETURNING TROOPS

EARLY MORNING ARRIVALS PROMPT REUNIONS WELCOMED Before dawn yesterday Dunedin accorded a warm welcome to returning long-service troops who arrived after a daylight trip to Lyttelton on the Dominion Monarch from Wellington. There were more than relatives to greet the home-coming servicemen, and a tribute to local transport arrangements was implicit in the fact that 10 minutes after the arrival of the troop train there was not a soldier or his friend in need of transportation. The usual official contingent, headed by the Mayor (Mr D. C. Cameron) and the mayors of contiguous boroughs, with representatives of interested organisations, were at the station half an hour before the arrival of the train, which was 2 hours 35 minutes behind time. The subject of the arrival of troop trains has been widely discussed, but there would be fewer strictures on the performance of the railway or military authorities if the general public could realise the satisfaction derived by returning troops from their immediate despatch from the point of disembarkation, irrespective of the time of their arrival at their ultimate destination. Men who for years have queued up and waited on army convenience have little patience with empty delays. Time of arrival home, or the circumstances of such arrival, count for little so long as the journey can be commenced without irksome delay. , Among those who returned yesterday morning were many who expressed gratification at the efforts of the transport authorities to eliminate the type of delay that had been an all too familiar feature of army life for some years. There was, in their view, a genuine attempt on the part of army officials and civil transport authorities to reduce to a minimum the type of frustration which, for a variety of reasons, had been a thorn in their flesh throughout a considerable period of service. While the men recognised that the time of arrival might be inconvenient to relatives and friends, it was generally agreed that they and their friends would prefer the earliest possible reunion, irrespective of the hour of day or the conditions of arrival. Yesterday’s early morning reception of the returning troops was typical, in the official sense at least, of the singularly efficient organisation of the district area staff officer, Major V. A. Norrish. who for several months has been personally responsible for the rapid detraining of large numbers of troops at Dunedin, with a minimum of inconvenience to the men themselves and a maximum of facility to those with someone to welcome.