AUSTRALIANS ASHORE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 101, 23 January 1919, Page 4

AUSTRALIANS ASHORE

A STORY FROM DURBAN. An entertaining story of the viisit of a returning Australian transport to Durban is told by an Australian soldier of four years' service in a letter to a brother resident in New Zealan3. The transport put into Durban for coal at the time when the influenza epidemio was raging in South Africa, and orders were given that none-of the soldiers should land. ' ; ■ ■

"They took us in and'tied up alongside a coal wharf, leaving about ten feet of water between the ship's side' aud the wharf," writes the Australian."Wo watched them place a guard of South African soldiers along the wharf, aud then went below, put on our uniforms, and cleaned ■ our boots. After tea wo ran out two planks, and about 600 'Aussies' tramped ashore. We told the guard to let their superiors know that they had'dono their best to stop - us, and liad failed. Then we 'thudded' somewhat. On inquiry we found that we were at the Bluff, and that we could get to Durban by ferry or by following the railway line. The.authorities had promptly stopped' the ferry, and the distance by. rail was about twenty miles.

"We decided to pad it along the railway line, and presently tHere were .'Aussies , strung out along that track for miles. ... We Sept going for about an hour, and wero beginning to wish that wo had never started, when wo heard the rattling of a. train behind us. So we sat down on the line and lit matches and stopped the train. It was a long, mixed train. There were a lot of 'Aussies , already aboard, and they had given the driver instructions to pull up for all 'Aussies' on the road. Before we bad gone another three miles tho trucks were crowded, and we. passed round a hat for the driver. Everybody was in uproarious spirits, yelling aiid cooeoilig aud shouting to the driver to pull up for chaps who were running "alongside in the darkness. ' . '.

"The train dropped us four mites from Durban, and we walked the rest of tho way. Then we struck the trams and tlie rickshaws. Not many 'civies , ! had a ride for an hour or so. But they heat its again. After we left the ship the authorities had telephoned to the hotels to shut np. But we had a good look round the town, and had fruit instead of beer, and rode about in rickshaws. Presently word went round that the authorities were raining a special train back to tlie ship at midnight, and we decided to catch it It was the. very latest thing in comfortable, trans-continental corridor trains, with card tables nhd'uvisVKisins' and collapsible bunks. That was part of the victory.".,