"SOUL OF ANZAC."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15132, 3 February 1920, Page 6

" SOUL OF ANZAC."

BIRDWOOD IN MELBOURNE. ENTHUSIASTIC" RECEPTION. MELBOURNE, J an . 22,-Although heavy ram fell throughout tho first hour oi General Birdwood's arrival m Melbourne, and to some extent marred the enthusiastic reception that had been planned m his honor, the thousands of soldiers and civilians who gathered m the citys sodden streets did their best to make tho "Soul of Anzac" feel that he • was their hero; Though the thunder crashed, and tho r V* , m torrents, nearly up to 11 °uu\ Diggers resolved to carry on with tho reception to General Birdwood m the Domain Campi ol i a ,) vefc Platform, Wrrounded thickly by loudly-cheering Aussies, the general essayed to give a speech m response to the tremendous welcome from the assem.blefl thousands, who had run. up from St. JUida-road as soon as the rain slackened. v ?P ce * eh resolved itself into a sort of chant— Birdwood's solo, and the thousands shouting *a sort of fugue chorus. Behind tho general as ho spoke, were ' 400 guns, trophies of war. Pressed round hini^ on tlie platform and massed m a semi-cuclo m front of him were hundreds ot cheerin-j soldiers, mostly m uniform. After Mr G. R. Palmer, Victorian President of the Returned Sailors and fcoldiers League, had voiced a hearty JL i m A General Birdwood rocked on • tJ1 f ( table and attempted a speech. j Dear* old Digger comrades," he said, I do . not know how you can expect me to talk on an occasion like this, if you realise, how absolutely full my heart must be. and i_, at tho welcome I have received from my old comrades. (Cheers.) I am happy to be with you again, and at being* received as you have received mo.- You boya will make mc talk as if I were a politician. I suppose you have plenty of politicians here. (Voice : "You bet!") "Some of you have hoard me speak beforo when we were goinc- to have a spell. You know those spells. A couple of hours route marching, a couple of hours musketry, threo of four hours physical -erks, and then all the leisure time to ( ourselves. (Laughter.) 'But you are now having a real dinkum spell, and I am tho man who is going ovor the top. You have put a hat on me, instead of my cap. But ifc does nofc matter a damn what hat you are wearing, but what is beneath the hat." 'And on ifc," , interjected a Digger. Amid a fire of interjections, General Birdwood managed to say that he was BUre hjs^ old comrades would make as ( loyal citizens as they had soldiers. • After t a search, the general discovered m his pocket a celluloid baby, and he said: "I suppose this was given to me to-day because the day before yesterday I became a grandfather of a little Aussie." (Great applause.)