TRIBUTE FROM TRIESTE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 22, 9 November 1945, Page 3

TRIBUTE FROM TRIESTE

FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALANDERS

The following article was first printed in a Trieste newspaper. It was translated and reprinted in the NZEF Times, and the clipping from the latter has been handed in to this, office. It was sent home by a local serviceman still overseas. It is in the form of a farewell to New Zealanders as they left Trieste : — "Chiao Trieste (Cheerio Trieste). You were able to read this written on the little tanks, and on the trucks that in the last few days have descended from Opicina to the city afterwards to take afar from us these soldiers —these citizens—of open heart, of happy nature and virgin mind who are our dear New Zealanders. Sad to Leave " 'Chiao Trieste' yes ;> because the English 'chi' has the same, sound as our 'ei' and they wrote yesterday in the English w T ay that 'Ciao' that they had taken from our and that is twin brother to their 'Ohee_ mo'. A nostalgic 'ciao' that of yesterday, neither frivolous nor uf circumstance—nostalgic because —as many of them told me—they were very saddened to leave behind for ever this city that had there, more festive meetings, more brotherly dealings and more intimate understandings than all the other cities through which' their long, dangerous and bloody journey lias; taken them. And if as well you add that they almost all have found a resemblance between the panorama of Trieste and that of Wellington (or of Aucka second version) you will understand still more how they had felt in a second country and a second patriarch.

"And how many of us were able not to have loved those boys who overthrew the last armoured resistance of the Nazi Fascists ic our who were with us from May to August and who above all with their children's games., with their games with our children, with their spontaneity -with their loyalty ? with friendliness, between superior and inferior that has made of their army a great and intimate family. A Happy Family . "They have revealed that there still exists a country in the world where society does not corrupt a man but makes him better and where there are neither rich nor poor but just richer or less a country for us remote and which is called New Zealand. "So long, Brother New Zealanders? we love you and you know that too ? but just because we love you we are content that you are leaving this old sickness that is called Europe which if you had remained may have undermined you all with its badness and are returning to your health;/ country."