N.Z. CORONATION TROOPS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 434, 15 May 1937, Page 7

N.Z. CORONATION TROOPS

GREAT RECEPTION Enthusiasm Of Crowds In London London, April 20. Th? New Zealand Corona'ion Contingent disembarked at Tilbury docks on the morning of Monday, April 19. There were press jhotographtrs, and cinema cameramen there 'o get pictur s—arrangemen t faciliated by the High Commissioner. The troops reached St. Pancras S‘n... tion by train at noon. About two hundred New Zealanders, amongs 1 ’ whom, besides the High Commissioner, and Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Walter Nash (Mr. Nash was absent jn Europ -), officials of the New Zealand Government service and many prominent persons in the Dominion were there to welcome them. And there were representatives of the War Office and the Dominions Office. It was rather a hectic time when the troops arrived The least hectic. overwhelmed wi h greetings. Press were the troops, though ihey were cameramen held things up for a few minutes, but in a very little while the fifty officers and men were lined up, nnd Mr. Jordan (himself an exsoldier) addressed a few brief remarks. He said he and Mre. Jordan wclcorpd Major Weir and his officers and men on behalf of New Zea_ i landers to London. To the ex-service men of the contingent he sa : d their welcome was different to when they formerly came to England 1 . Now there was to be ho bull-rin/g, no trench firestep, or over. the top drill, no machonachie or iron ration, and no barrages, or snipers. To the younger men he said they, by the virtue of the soldiers who had preceded them, already had a good name here, and he knew they would maintain it. He told the men they would all meet many visitors from o her bands. It would be of life-long interest and value to them. The New Zealand Government knew they would all do credit Io themselves and the Dominion in their great mission of representing our forces and our people at the Coronation. He wished them all good luck, and called for three cheers for them. The cheers ■were heartily given by all New Z<»‘.landers gathered around, but “the cheers/of the contingent for “Our High Commissioner” at the call of Major Weir put them to shame. Remarkable Demonstration. In a very little while the troops, headed by two bands of 'I he Grenadier Guards, marched! off land out of ’.he station There were enormous crowds to greet them and loud cheers. No contingent yet arriving has been so greeted. They marched up streets familiar to ex-New Zealand soldiers — Euston Road, Southampton * Row, Kingsway, Aidwych, Strand., Admiralty Arch, and down the Guards’ parade approach to Wellington Barracks. There were cheering crowds everywhere—a most remarkable demonstra tion of the memory held by our troops during the war, It will be interesting to New Zealanders to know that 'the London i newspapers paid particularly warm tributes to our men. All of the London evening papers and those next morning published photographs of the march through the streets; one, the

“Evening Star” gave up the whole of its illustrated page to the contingent. The cinema pictures appear in the newt, reels in London and provincial theatres to.morrow for three days and nights. Here are a few newspaper tributes: “London Evening News’’:—“Londoners have given a warm welcome to many visitors here, but seldom has there been such a welcome as that given to-day to the New Zealand Contingent for the Coronation. When the fifty khaki_clad troops stepped out of the train which brought them from Tilbury to St. Pancras, hundreds of people broke into a terrific cheer. It was one of those spontaneous cheers which will be remembered for many a day, and when the contingent marched out of the station they found waiting many hundreds more to cheer them on their way.” The “Evening Standard”:—-“The New Zealand Coronation Contingent were given a welcome which stopped the traffic when they marched through London on their arrival 'to-day. All along the route business people came out of their offices or crowded the windows of office buildings, shopkeepers left their work, workers taking an early lunch came out of the restaurants, the Covent Garden porters downed their baskets to greet them, and Trafalgar Square was a mass of humanity when they reached it. The party were met at St. Pancras by the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Mr. W. J. Jordan. The new arrivials were almost overwhelmed by friends; and it was with difficulty -that they w,ere formed up for the official welcome. The men gave three cheers for the High and were then marched off, headed by the band of the Grona d tor Guards, for Welling.

ton Barracks. At New Zealand House in the Strand, the New Zealanders gave the ‘eyes right’ to the High Commissioner as. he s’oo.l .in a beflagged balcony. New Zealanders working in Sll’and offices shouted Maori war cries as they swung along. A crowd of some five hundred strong, headed by New Zealand visitors over for the Coronation, .followed in step behind them.”