BILLETING OF NAVAL MEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 278, 24 November 1945, Page 4

BILLETING OF NAVAL MEN

|T would not be to the credit of Wanganui if a visit of naval men from the aircraft-carrier Indefatigable and her two escorting destroyers had to be cancelled because insufficient response had been made to an appeal to billet the men. The city is expected to have as guests some 40 of thcife men, who belong to the senior service, a service which enabled Britain to stand alone against the enemy. Are the memories of people so short that they can so easily forget the part that service played? Not only that, New Zealand people should never forget the wonderful hospitality of the people of the British Isles toward servicemen fr,om this Dominion, hospitality extended at a time when rationing was most stringent and conditions generally far from the best. The least Wanganui can do in this land upon which the sears of war have not been felt, is to welcome these British naval visitors with open arms. When next the town clerk opens his mail let it be hoped that billets for double the number required have been made available—that would be but very little by way of repayment of what this city owes to the Royal Navy.