THE FLEET AT BREST.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11648, 28 August 1905, Page 4

THE FLEET AT BREST.

It must have taxed the descriptive, powers of the special correspondents of the London papers- to the utmost to do justice to the magnificence of the scene when the British fleet steamed slowly into the harbour of Brest on the morning of June 10. It was forty years since there had been such an invasion of the historic port, and the people testified to the sincerity of the Anglo-French entente, by concerning themselves about the vißit more than they had done about anything for generations. By daybreak people were about, and when the slaty hull of Kijig Edward VII. appeared between the Heads, it seemed as if half Brittany was gathered on the shore. Instead of the restraint and silence with which novelists endow the Bretons, one found, says one correspondent, "affability and a sincere desire to show the British sailors that the feelings which prompted the warmth of their welcome was deeper than mere politeness." The disposition of the ships was an interesting indication of Anglo-French friendship. When a fleet visits , a foreign port the usual custom is for the ships of both nations to lie in separate lines, but at Brest the British and French fleets anchored together, every British vessel being moored with a French ship ahead and astern. It can well be believed that the week's programme of festivities and feasting was so elaborate as to be almost terrifying to the man whose constitution is not over strong. In the evening Brest gave itself up to a wild fit of gaiety. The British sailors fraternising with the Frenchmen, invaded every cafe in the town, and the streets in the evoning were filled with dancers. Indeed, it might almost be said that the gaiety went right round with the clock. A magnificent ball was given on the battleship Jaureguiberry — magnificent as a function, but a failure from the point of view of dancing, owing to the great crowd. It was theie that the visiting gunroom messes learnt that the vory English and very pleasant custom^ of "sitting out" several dances with partners did- not commend itself to French parents, but as most of these young men had to entertain their partners on an extremely limited vocabulary of French, perhaps it was not an unmixed'evil. And there, was a disappoint.merit on the other- side. Four thousand Parisians gathered at the> Gare des Invalides station, in the hope of seeing one hundred and twenty British officers in all the glory of gold and lace, and like the natives at Rotorua, when they saw the Duke of ' York they were - grievously disappointed when the visitors appeared in quiet lounge suits. We are .told that, the British sailors were most friendly, but when the Bretons became effusive, which happened pretty often, they thought it advisable to stand on their dignity. The response among the British messes to the call for relief for the sufferers by the disaster to the French submarine is said to have done more to capture the affections of all France than would the presence of the whole British navy.