HOSPITALITY TO U.S. MEN APPRECIATED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 207, 2 September 1943, Page 4

HOSPITALITY TO U.S. MEN APPRECIATED

(P.A.) Auckland, Sept. 1. A friendlier welcome could hardly have been given to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt than the one she received from 3000 Aucklanders, mostly women, who attended the civic reception in tile Town Hall at mid-day and from the thousands *iore who gathered outside to see her arrive and depart. A platoon of soldiers helped the police and traffic officers to control the crowds which lined the . street after the last available seat in the hall had been occupied and no more people were admitted. The invited guests, who entered later and were accommodated behind the stage, included members and officials of locai and public bodies, Government officials, foreign Consuls and representatives ol many civic, patriotic and social organisations. Applause and waving handkerchiefs greeted Mrs. Roosevelt as she entered the hall with the Mayor, Mr. J.* A. C. Allum, at the head of the official party. The latter included the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, representing the Government. Mrs. Roosevelt received loud and long applause when she rose to reply. Speaking o f New Zealand hospitality to American servicemep, she said those who were sent down from the islands were happy and glad to be here. It was aftei they left the hospitals that their gratitude had a personal touch, for she had been told that people had been taking them into their homes and keeping them for as much as two weeks, which was a long time to take in strangers. “But the boys do not feel strangers at all,’’ she added. "They are very far from home and some of them have never been far from home before. You think of America, no doubt, as a land of big cities, but it is also a great agricultural country. Some of the boys have never been out of their homes for a single night •until they join the Army or Navy. They are apt to be homesick and they are very young.” Expressing her own confidence that the tide was now flowing to victory, Mrs. Roosevelt said formerly she had thought, that when Mr. Churchill made the "V” with his fingers he was merely doing it to bolster other people's courage. Now she was sure he did it from inner conviction. Mrs. Roosevelt war, loudly applauded at the close of her address, and smiling faces greeted her at every I turn as the official party left the hail. ! Crowds lining the street for nearly 200 yards watched her drive away.