MR T. M. WILFORD

Southland Times, Issue 20979, 11 January 1930, Page 5

MR T. M. WILFORD

ARRIVAL IN LONDON HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR NEW ZEALAND. RECEPTION AT WATERLOO. (United Press Assn. —By Telegraph—Copyright.) London, January 9. “I’ve injured my knee cap so I cannot play you golf,” was the Hon. T. M. Wilford’s greeting to Earl Jellicoe, who is recovering from his operation. To Lord Passfield, the Dominions Secretary, he said: “We know your writings well in New Zealand.” Lord Bledisloe, Lord Chelmsford, Miss Isobel Wilford, and many New Zealanders, including a schoolfellow of Mr Wilford’s whom he had not met since, also welcomed Mr and Mrs Wilford at Waterloo Station. Mr Wilford strained a cartilage in one of his knees while playing deck tennis on the last day of the voyage, otherwise he had an excellent passage and arrived in the best of health. After a civic welcome by the Mayor, Mr Hector Young, at Southampton, the High Commissioner briefly talked with journalists. He said he hoped some agreement would be reached on basic principles at the Naval Conference. As the representative of New Zealand he was particularly interested in Singapore, which he had visited on a recent tour. He added that he intended to deal with New Zealand’s economic problems at the Savoy Hotel luncheon on January 16. A later report states that Mr Wilford cannot stand up for New Zealand at present, though he hopes to recover before the Naval Conference. Mr Hal Williams, a schoolmate of his at Christ’s College over 40 years ago, whom Mr Wilford had not seen since, met him on the platform. Mr Wilford spent his first evening in London watching his daughter Isobel playing in “Warm Corner.”