CHEERFUL TOUR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 November 1941, Page 6

CHEERFUL TOUR

N.Z. HIGH COMMISSIONER IN WESTERN DESERT REMARKABLE KNOWLEDGE OF FAMILIES. SHOWN IN TALKS WITH SOLDIERS. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) (Received This Day. 11.34 a.m.) WESTERN DESERT, November 12. The New Zealand High Commissioner (Mi- W. J. Jordan) brushed yellow Western Desert dust from his black Homburg hat with a sleeve of his tropical suit. “This thing looks a bit funny here,” he said, and then put it back on his head and resumed the strangest tour of inspection I have ever followed. It was as if he had flipped the pages of scores of family albums, chosen at random, and in almost every one found a picture he knew. There must be no other man than he who has more personal knowledge of New Zealanders overseas, or of their families or friends, or the towns and streets in which they have lived, There is hardly a single group with whom he has talked which has failed to bring to light some personal link, such as the' names and addresses of parents and friends. The tour was completely informal. It had to be for the way in which Mr Jordan kept stopping his car to chat with soldiers he happened to glimpse would have turned any fixed programme upside down. He needed no introduction besides his own “Morning gentlemen,” for everybody seemed to know he was Bill Jordan. He would ask men where they lived in New Zealand, what their jobs were in the army, how their health was, and then crack jokes and chat easily with them. It was the same with everyone, from brigade commanders to private soldiers. Mr Jordan walked in and out of dugouts, peered into one-man sleeping holes, and had cooks open their home-made colonial ovens to show him meals in preparation. He was bounced over bumpy tracks to visit posts. .At the escarpment- he had a roadside mug of strong black tea with a convoy which had stopped for lunch. Mr Jordan’s outstanding impressions were the good health, fitness and high spirits general throughout the force. He felt proud to meet the troops and is confident that they are ready for anything.