IN THE “GAY CITY.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17279, 21 September 1916, Page 10

IN THE “GAY CITY.”

CANTERBURY SOLDIER IN PARIS

DESCRIBES GREAT LIBERTY DAY REVIEW.

Mrs J. AVarburton, of 100, Montreal Street, Sydenham, lias received from her son, Private R. Warburton, who went with the Fifth Reinforcements, a bright account of the great review in Paris on Liberty Day, July 14, at which he was one of tho Canterbury representatives.

Ho left, the camp. “ Somewhere in Franco,” two days before the review was held, and went by train to Abbeville, where the New Zealand representatives mot the representatives of the British regiments, tho South Africans, the Canadians, the Newfoundlanders, and the rest. The soldier writes:

“ We were up at six in the morning, and, after cleaning our buttons and boots and making ourselves look sniyt, we marched to the station on route for Paris and the gayest timo of my life. Wo got wet through on the waste the station, but we wero all too excited at the prospect of a good time in the Gay City to notice the fact. We entrained at 8 a.m., and after a '-cry pleasant trip hit Paris with a loud and enthusiastic smack at 4 p.m., and then tho fun started. Wo formed tip, with the Guards lending and tho New Zealanders bringing up the rear- Talk about a reception 1 It was splendid! The people didn’t know who wo all were, but wo get a good hearing all die same. Our hats with the puggarees on them were a puzzle to them, and they called us Canadians and Australians, and everything but Now Zealanders. They didn’t seem to know here was such a place as New Zealand, but who i we tokl them we were Arzacs they understood and clapped and cheered as if they had gone mad. We marched for about three miles through this wild tumult to La Pep-'nieve Barracks, where we ran into a bigger crowd than ever, end had to fight our way through. The New Zealanders were all put in one room, where there were beds and other nice things provided by tho French people. As soon as we got in tho room we all threw off our gear and rushed to the windows, which were right on tho street, and then started a nerformnnoe, which was carried on a'! the timo wc were ; n the city, exelmngin" souvenirs. They «i!l wanted buttons, badges and any old thing we could d : g up. They camo to tho windows and threw in cigarettes, cakes and all sorts of good things; in fact, made a general fuss of us. I don t know what time the people got home, but when I went to bed, 1 a.m.. tlieio was still a big crowd outside tho windows. THE CROWDS.

“ AYo were up bright and early next morning, which was the start of 1 the dnv, July 14. V’e polished curselves up till we positively shoos like diamonds, and at eight o’clock wo marched out to a big square, where the review was hr!cl.° I forget the name of tho square, but it is right, under .the .tower, and is a very big place, with gilt statues all round it. It was early enough when we went to tho review, but even then the streets wero Absolutely pnekon w’t.i people, nnd we heard afterwards that some of them had been there since o a.m., getting a good position. I thought that wo caused a hit of a sensation when wo were inarching from the station to the barracks on tho day we arrived, but that was nothing to wlmt we got r.ow. The square was absolutely lined with people, millions of them —at least we thought so—and they cheered and cheered, and went generally mad with excitement. The noise they mrule was simplv deafening, but of course we didn’t mind that; T would sooner hear it than tho sound of big guns. “ Tho British Army was the first at tho square, and then the others started to pour in. There was a big crowd oi Bel'dans, cyclists, infantry and lancers, and about a battalion of Russians and French, belonging to the different regiments. Tho other Allies were represented bv staff officers. _ About ten o’clock there was a stir in tho crowd, and the President, General .Joffre. a Russian general and all sorts of h'g people marched through the ranks while the bands played the different anthems. They sounded all right, and caused tho pcoplo to yell some, I can tell you. PATHS * STREWN WITH ROSES. “ After the review wc formed up in column of route nnd started on our march through Paris. The procession was headed by the Belgians, fo lowed by tho British, Russians, trench and French colonials. We marched at nttent'on with fixed bayonets and lull packs, but a man was too taken up with the crowd to notice that Ins P ac * was getting heavy. We marched about five miles, and at no part of the road was the crowd less than ten to twenty deep all mad with excitement. I nave read of people’3 paths being strewn with roses, hut never expected to have my own path strewn with them, and very slippery they arc to walk on, on a liard, smooth road. Everywhere we went the people were throwing siiowcrs of flowers at us, until the roads were simply covered with them. They v.eie thrown from the side of tho road, out. of windows, from the top oi cvoiy building we passed, and yo passed a few. At one place, the Place de Justice, which is on a corner and has dozens of stone steps round it. theie was the biggest crowd I have ever seen, and the. flowers came on ns like ram. The air was simply full of them, and t.hev wero sticking all over our gear.

THE PEOPLE’S ENTHUSIASM. “ Bell, all good things must end, and so did our march, and we were then put into army motor lorries and taken round the town for two hours and shown some of the sights and places> to visit when wo got leave, got back to barracks at 3 p.m., and leaic uas granted from 3.30 to 8.30 p.ni. &, soon as w.got outside tile barrack rates we were grabbed by aU the ueoplo who could, and couldn t speak'English, thrown into motor-can,, and taken round to sonic private house for lunch. Talk about feed . I was feeding all the time I was m 1 the mace Two or three of us would be strolling along tho footpath and dosvn mould flash a private oar, und someboclv would get- oufc and grab us. * you New Zealanders? Beil, you must come out to my placo and meet m> wife and daughters, who are very-anxi-ous to speak to some of the gallant Anzacs.” It was absolutely no good refusin'* as they wouldn't take a roHr Vo simply had to be dragged into the car and buzz out to some big house and he made a fuss or. I hen wo would have what they called a little to eat, hut wlmt was really a big feed for a horse. As we had to go through this performance two or three times in sn afternoon, you can guess what we felt like at tho finish. Yo were not allowed to pay for anything, either. If we went in anywhere for a feed, there was sure to be someone who would jump up and invito ns over to his or her table. V © could get anything we wanted, but thoy wouldn t stand being oakl for it. It was just as well things were like this, ns we had verv little money to start with. AVe got‘home at 8.30 that night, and after hanging out of the windows for some time wont to bed and slept the sleep of the good. the FAREAVELL. “ AVer expected to have leave from 9 a.m. next day, and so did the people, as there was a big crowd outside the gates, waiting to grab us and cart- us off somewhere, but wo all missed, as we didn’t get leave till 12.30, .and then we only got till 5.30, so we didn’t have as much timo ns we expected, but as most of us stopped out till 11.30, wo got as much leavo as could ho expected for one day. That day was much like

the ono before, except- that we ha-u more time, so had more feeds at private houses, saw more sights, and had more fun. There was a street collection.on while we were there, and everybody who dipped into the box got one of the enclosed little cards pinned on him. They wouldn’t let us put any money in the box, but seemed to take a delight in pinning the cards on us, 'o it looked as if we had given a lot. Wherever we went we had an admiring crowd after us, and if we stopped for ten seconds we were surrounded and had to fight our way out. Another thing, wherever we went there was something winking at us. If it wasn’t a girl it was a camera. Ta.n. about famous people being snapped! Well, I reckon wo were snapped 7864 times a day, and I’ll bet we looked ‘ some ’ frights in some of the photographs, as we were laughing most of the time, and a man doesn’J; look very pretty when he is laughing, does he? “ Well, we carried on with the sight-seeing till 10 p.m., and then started to buzz off homo, and that took us some time, as we had to stop every few yards to decline an invitation to supper. “ Owing to the boys over-staying Wvo, there was none granted next day, but as the people were allowed in tho barrack ground wo lmd just about as much fun ns if we had been out. The people brought cakes and all sorts of good things for us to eat, and wo sat round tables and sin ted about the bravo deeds wo had not done t : ll it was time to leavo Paris. We fell in at about 7.30 p.m. on the sixteenth ; and then started tho most exciting time I ever had in my life. We were told before we left barracks that we could do anything we liked, sing, shout, whistle, or anything, as long as we didn’t break the ranks. We didn’t break them, but soon after we started the people broke them to pieces. They simply rushed sis and wouldn’t let us get on. I was walking along shaking hands with both hands at onco and all tho Knglis’n the people knew was ‘Good-bye’ and ‘Kiss mo.’ Wo had to kiss and be kissed by everybody, from tho oldest man or woman to the youngest- kiddy there, and when T toll you that it took Sis two and a half hours to do a quarter of an hour’s inarch you will bo able to guess what sort of a time we had. “We managed to fight our way to the station at last, boarded the train, and left Paris and the best time I evor had in my life. I have not tried to describe any of tho sights I saw, as I would only make a mess of it, and it is best left to your imagination. ’