TROOPS IN EGYPT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 138, 11 May 1940, Page 9

TROOPS IN EGYPT

CHURCH PARADE AT CAIRO. (AT.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) Alarcli 81. From the pulpit of a new and beautiful Anglican cathedral church alongside the Nile in Cairo, .members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force were welcomed in Egypt to-day by the Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan, lit. Rev. Dr. L. H. Gwynne, 0.A1.G., C.B.E. Representatives of all units of the force filled All Saints’ Church to take part in'a special service of welcome. Afterwards they marched through the . city’s main streets, which were thickly lined by civilian, onlookers. Clergy officiating at the service were the Bishop, the Archdeacon (Ven. F. F. Johnston) and tho senior chaplain of the New Zealand Force (Rev. E. B. Aloore;. The choristers were New Zealand soldiers, who had been selected and rehearsed during the previous week, and the organist was Lieutenant A. J. Crisp, an infantry officer. Ln his address of welcome, the Bishop recalled that iri the last war he had had tlie privilege of confirming and preaching among the New Zealand contingent in France. He knew that some of those in the present force had served also in the Great War, and of them lie said: “God bless them for coming again.” To the many others who were sons of warriors who had laid down their lives he expressed gratitude that they had answered the call so readily. Speaking of tlie fighting record of the New Zealanders, their wonderful courage, steadfastness and endurance, Bishop Gwynne added: “You give us such confidence by your very presence among us, for we all know you will show the same qualities again.” As the parade marched away from tlie church, led by the combined infantry battalion hands, its salute was taken by Bishop 'Gwynne, who stood with the Divisional Commander.?until the long column of troops had swung away towards the heart of the city. For most of the men that march was the strangest ever experienced, by reason of the colourful and oddly assorted throngs through which -they passed. Their route took them first along a street in a mox - e characteristically Egyptian part of the city. There, as the music of the band announced the coining of the troops, donkey-cart drivers pulled to the side of the road; veiled women, with jugs and bundles poised on their heads, halted in their rhythmic, swaying walk and watched in silence; barefooted urchins mimicked the swing of the soldiers’ arms; red-fezzed men sitting at tables in open-air- cafes put down their glasses of cold tea and joined the spectators. The crowd grew denser as the column reached the streets in which the European influence is strongest, and office workers clustered on the balconies of tall buildings. Tlie scene carried the New Zealanders back to their farewell parades in the Dominion’s main centres—except that it lacked the homely cries of friends and relatives in the crowd. AIEAIORIA.L MASS FOR LATE PREMIER. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service). Alarcli, 30 The loss, in tlie death of the Prime Alinister, Rt. Hon. Al. J. Savage, of a man whom we knew, had done much to safeguard our well-being as soldiers came as a sudden shock to most of the members of tlie Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force.— Word-of-mouth reports of Air Savage’s illness had been heard in the camp for some time previous to his death, but it was not until we read late official bulletins and newspaper reports that the majority of us . realised the critical state of his health.

All units were represented to-day at a Alemorial Alass for the Prime Alinister in St. Joseph’s Church, Cairo. Distinguished civilians present included the British Ambassador to Egypt, Sir Aliles Lampson, and Lady Lampson, together with representatives of the British Consular and Australian Trade Commissioner’s offices in Cairo. Officers representing the British Troops in Egypt and the Royal Air Force also attended.

The celebrant was the Catholic chaplain of the N.Z.E.F., Captain L. P. Spring. Almost in the heart of the city, yet cool and quiet, the church provided a fitting setting for tlie solemn ritual of the Alass. High above the robed figures of Captain Spring and liis attendant priests, and the drifting ’ smoke of burning incense, a dove fluttered now and again across the domed roof. The clear voices of a choir of boys from a Cairo orphanage school echoed softly through great marble pillars. That it seemed right and proper for New Zealand’s soldiers to join, their people at home in paying their tribute and respects to one who had so faithfully and for so ' long served his country, was a thought expressed by Captain Spring in a eulogy of Air Savage. Tlie chap-

lain traced the career of the late Prime Minister and showed how his popularity had increased. For the past two years his health had been under a cloud, and he had evidently been a very sick man, but his courage had held fast and he had carried on. “I think I can truthfully say—and even those who did not agree with his politics, will agree with this—that Michael Joseph Savage was one of the most popular and universally loved Prime Ministers New Zealand has possessed,” Captain Spring added. “Truth was his motto, justice and charity his ideals. His loyalty to the Crown and his efforts to cement the bonds of Empire could never l>e questioned.”