TROOPS DEPART

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 4, 24 May 1940, Page 7

TROOPS DEPART

Draft For Papakura MARCH IN~WELLINGTON - About 190 recruits for the third echelon inarched through Wellington on the 15th, from the drill hall by way of the main streets to the railway sta .ion, to entrain for Papakura Camp, Auckland. The draft formed up in the drill halt it about two o'clock. About half wore uniform, the rest 'mufti with a red and-white armband marked’ with a crown, to distinguish them from civilians on the railway stations and elsewhere along their route. x There were several Maoris, reinforcements for the Maori Battalion; the remainder were recruits for the anti-tank regiment and the field artillery. A crowd had assembled in Buckle Street, and the draft ; was given a good reception as it followed the band down Taranaki Street and Vivian Street, in Cuba Street the crowds along the way increased in numbers; shop girls and office workers streamed out to line the pavements as the military music heralded the approach of the marching men. , Those in uniform, feeling perhap✓something of the inspiration of the service to which they now belong, marched smartly, but the men in mufti showed an inclination to straggle, and an occasional uncertainty in keeping step However, the parade was an. impressive one, and its significance was not lost to the spectators along the route, wh ■ gave the men a stirring send-off. The crowds were densest at th? junction of Lambton Quay and Willis Street, where the draft was given a cousing' cheer. The majority of friends and relative-, if the recruits, as well as a large bod., if the general public, awaited their arrival at the railway station. The steps were crowded, and as the soldier? marched through a narrow lane between the onlookers into the crowded concourse, they exchanged greetings, handshakes, and even kisses, with friends who had come To say good-bye. Though the public were excluded from he troop-train platform, they lined the neighbouring one, and many of the soldiers, on falling out, climbed down on o the tracks to exchange filial greet mgs. After the train backed in to the pla f form, and another local train took up its position on the next set of tracks soldiers in the troop train were able to chat from their windows to friend' who had swarmed aboard the suburban carriages, not due'to depart till some time later.

There was 'a slight wait while the baggage of the draft was loaded, and then, with a final whistle, waving of hands and cheery shouts from plat forms'and windows, the men set out on the first stage of the adventure they have undertaken. t