HIGHLY POPULAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1942, Page 2

HIGHLY POPULAR

NEW ZEALAND BAND. IN LEBANESE VILLAGES. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) BEIRUT, May 2. The most enthusiastic among the audiences New Zealand Infantry Brigade Band has yet had are the Lebanese. In the surrounding villages, church hells are rung in Christian communities to announce the band’s arrival, household tasks are dropped, and from the fields farmers come to squat entranced in front of the band, listening to musifi utterly foreign to them. Marches, with plenty of noise fr'om the drums, appeal more than the classics, but a trombone solo brings down the house. After the show there is a rush to take the New Zealanders home. These villagers are the poorest of the poor, but their hospitality is unbounded. Tea, coffee, and cherry brandy are offered, and sometimes a meal. Usually the hosts entertain' with song and dances. Once Bedouins encamped nearby sat the New Zealanders on cushions spread on the floor and brought in a troupe of dancing girls. The visit ends with the toast by the villagers: “May you kill all your enemies and win the war.” Mohammedan villages have welcomed the New Zealanders with equal warmth but with more traditional and ritual hospitality. The band also visited larger towns, where the traffic was stopped, streets lined; and balconies crowded. The populace, especially the Greek communities, clapped and cheered.