THE PRINCE’S WAR STORY

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1928, Page 1

THE PRINCE’S WAR STORY

STAR TURN AT A LEGION RALLY. LOXDOX, Dee. 10. At first sliv at finding himself on the stage surrounded by special scenery hearing the Prince of Wales feathers, and faced by an audience of 9,000, the Prince of Wales recovered himself sufficiently at a British Legion rally at the Broadway Cinema, Stratford, F., last night-, to tell the best war story of the score told during the evening. , AVives, mothers, and children of members of the British Legion throughout North-East Loudon were at this North-East District Rally, and sang themselves hoarse as the Prince walked from the stalls to belli ml the scenes. Suddenly the orchestra struck up light music. The curtains swung apart, revealing more curtains. These curtains divided and showed scenery, and at last when the scenic movements were complete, the Prince was found flooded with light and blinking before a huge special hack-sheet. His obvious surprise at it all awed the audience, but he 'soon won hack their laughter by saving, “ AYlien this •urtaiii went up 1 felt as if 1 was going

to do a dance number.” It, took minutes for the merriment tu subside, and then he told them that lie took the vastness of the audience on such a bitterly cold night as proof of the strength and growth of the British Legion movement. THOSE WHO FADE AWAY. " Talking of cold nights.” said tic Prince, undaunted by the fact that professional artists had just been telling war stories, ‘‘ reminds me of the story of an old quartermaster-sergeant—-(laughter)—one of those old soldiers who never die, hut simply fade away. (More laughter.) “After the war this Q.AI.S. cam? into some money (roars of laughter from ex-soldiers that puzzled their womenfolk). Whether he was left it hv an old aunt or whether he had made it a little previously—here even the women joined in the yell of laughter, the legend as to what quartermasters did in the war obviously having reached them—or whether he had made it previously by the sale of Old rum jars, I don’t know. But. anyhow, he bought a little house.” "And called it • Diiiirohhiii,’ ” shouted one man, thinking he had anticipated the joke. A “ No.” said the Prince. “ ho bought a little house at Southend. I believe, and lived there with his old Army servant.

“ The old servant was instructed to call the Q.ALS. every morning early. 1 think at five. He would have to say, ‘ It is snowing hard outside, sir, and there is a liitle Hit of a strafe on.’ " The Q.AI.S. would reply, ‘Then you had hotter turn out at once and check over the rations.’ “ Then the servant, on the instructions given to him, would say, ‘Tell the quartermaster to go and drown himself.’ Then lie would turn over and go j to sleep happily,” concluded the Prince amid deafening laughter. AVAR’S BRIGHT SPOTS. In more serious vein the Prince added that Christinas would always he one of j the few bright spots of the war. “ Sometimes we groused about it, but it was really a wonderful institution. In time of peace or war it was a time when we remembered old friends and forgot our enemies.” In the cheer that followed there was the laughter of a few Old Contemptibles who remembered the fraternisation with the Germans at Christinas, 191 I. a fraternisation which the Higher Command of both armies frowned upon. Towards them the Prince directed a knowing smile. As the Prince was moving off the stage “ Auld Lang Syne” was struck up, and the audience joined in. He found himself alone on the vast stage. Towards the end of the song he waved to someone in the wings to join him. and then appeared more at ease. Throughout the performance women who packed the circle waved their programmes in the hope of getting one ot the occasional waves of the hand that he sometimes directed in reply. A huge crowd outside tin' building gave him an ovation when ho arrivo.l and left.