N.Z. BAND IN SYRIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 52, 13 May 1942, Page 6

N.Z. BAND IN SYRIA

The most enthusiastic among the audiences New Zealand Infantry Brigade band has yet had are the Lebanese. In the surrounding villages, church bells are rung in Christian communities to announce the band's arrival, household tasks are dropped, and from the fields farmers come to squat entranced in front of the band, listening to music uterly foreign to them.

Marches. with plenty of noise from the drums, appeal more than the classics, but a trombone solo brings down the .house. After the show there is a rush to take the New Zealanders home. These villagers are the poorest of the poor, but their hospitality unbounds. Tea, coffee and cherry, brandy are offered, and sometimes a meal. Usually the hosts entertain with song and dance. Once Bedouins encamped nearby sat the New Zcalanders on cushions spread on the floor and brought in a troupe of dancing girls. The visit ends with the toast by the villagers "May you kill all your enemies and win the war." Mahommedan villages have welcomed the New Zealanders with equal warmth but with more traditional and ritual hospitality. The 1 band also visited larger towns, where the traffic was stopped, streets lined and balconies crowded. The populace, especially the Greek communities, clapped and cheered. To-mor-row the band is giving a programme for Radio Levant from Beirut under the baton of Lieutenant J. B. Coffin, of Wellington.