R.S.A. REUNION

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21418, 12 May 1941, Page 9

R.S.A. REUNION

WAIKATO ASSOCIATION MAJOR FOSTER AS GUEST Between 200 and 300 members assembled at the Alexandra Hall on Saturday night for the annual reunion of the Waikato Returned Soldiers’ Association. Sergeant D. I. Gate, the president, occupied the chair. A special guest was Major John Foster, of Te Akatea, a veteran of the Great War, and who was recently invalided home from service in the Middle East with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was wounded during operations against the Italians. A well-varied programme of musical and elocutionary items was presented and a few toasts honoured, principal of which was that of the Army, Navy and Air Force, proposed by Major A. E. Gibbons and acknowledged by the guest of the evening. Major Foster gave a description of conditions in Egypt, comparing them with those experienced in the 114-18 campaign. He was listened to with very keen attention and appreciation, and at the close was loudly applauded. Life at Maadi The speaker told of the camp life, at Maadi, the commissariat arrangements, the lack of equipment at first, the journey to Mersa Matruh over a tar-sealed roadway and by rail, the inegssant Italian air raids on the concentration, the effect of dust storms. He also referred to the special operations in the Western Desert hundreds of miles from the Mediterranean, the changed appearance of Zeitoun and other Egyptian centres, and the vagaries of the Egyptian service to Mersa Matruh. The preparations for the advance into Libya, and the success that resulted, were also outlined by the speaker. Not the least interesting feature of the evening was the roll-call. There were even several veterans of the South African war in the company, and they were hailed with special applause.