MILESTONES

Down the Hatch, Issue 5, 5 February 1944, Page 3 (Supplement)

MILESTONES

The crossing ; of the Line marks an important stage in our journey. Most of us, at the outset, fixed in our minds certain -milestones on the route we believed we would follow, and, as our course generally has been in. accordance with our expectations, we have measured our progress by bur arrivals and departures from our ports of call.

The fact that we had not been long at sea alleviated the disappointment which we felt when we learned that we were not . to go ashore at our .first port of call and our enforced confinement to the ship ' perhaps enabled us to appreciate all the more our spell on shore when we reached our second port and to our delight found, ourselves in the midst of a people who were hospitable in a remarkable degree and, in a memorable couple of days, treated us with such kindness as we shall never forget. . What awaits us in our next port of call, the name of which we know, we have, at the time of writing,- yet to learn. . : We know, however, that we are going to a country, of which we have learned much in picture and story and with which, we feel; actual contact would be an enlightening and valuable experience. We. believe, too, that we may be reasonably sure of the route to be followed on the somewhat shorter final stages of ; our journey.

If this journey has entailed its trials and deprivations, if there have been times when it has been something of an ordeal, we must accept that as part of our soldierly experience - part of a sacrifice which, we feel, is being made in . a fine cause. For this there is, for most of us, ample compensation in the experiences we have enjoyed and the memories they will provide. • . >