OVERSEA TROOPS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16428, 23 January 1919, Page 7

OVERSEA TROOPS.

demobilisation begins

(By Cable.—Fxws Association.—Copyright, (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, January 19. The news that the war was over for Australians and New Zealanders, whatever may occur, was received with the utmost' satisfaction by the Australian Corps still stationed in the Charleroi and Dinant districts. They aro mostly comfortably billeted in towns and, villages, and even privates have the luxury of a bed after tho strenuous campaigning and constant movement. Tho soldiers find the people extremely hospitable" in contrast to their treatment in other places in France and Belgium, where there was a tendency to exploit tho soldiers. The Belgian people just released from the Hun invasion greeted the Australians with the greatest cordiality, and it is a frequent sight to see an Austrar lian taking a Belgian family—father, mother, and children —to the local military cinema shows. Ihe Now Zealand Division remains in tho neighbourhood of Cologne. The Maori Battalion has been reassembling at Dunkirk, with a view to repatriation in a body. It is likely that the New Zealanders will shortly movo to near the coast in the vicinity of Havre, with a view to facilitating their demobilisation. Tho French railways are congested, but through trains composed of ambulance cars, now converted into sleepers, are running from Germany to the coast With a view to bringing out all the remaining 191q Australians, numbering 12,000, it has been arranged that 1000 shall cross the Channel from Havre to Weymouth every three days, being replaced by the latest reinforcements, it has been decided that all tho Austraembark in hundreds from an English port. Thirteen thousand "five hundred departed in December in 15 steamers, and eight steamers sailed in January, carrying 6500. The total shipped is over 20,000.