HISTORIC ENSIGN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1940, Page 4

HISTORIC ENSIGN

BATTLE FLAG OF ACHILLES. PERPETUAL. PRESERVATION IN AUCKLAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 23. Carefully stored in the ship’s strongroom for safe-keeping when the Achilles arrived at Auckland was a New Zealand ensign which had been flown from the masthead as a battle-flag. This was the first time the New Zealand ensign had been flown in a naval action, and it is the intention of Captain Parry to hand it over to the civil authorities for perpetual preservation. After the scuttling of the Graf Spee the ensign was greeted with rousing cheers from the ship’s company of the Ajax as the New Zealand cruiser moved past her outside Montevideo. The hoisting of the ensign to the masthead was the signal for shouts of “Well done, the Diggers.” KIWI MAT FOR CAPTAIN. On behalf of the Maori race, Mr Tai Mitchell presented Captain Parry, at the reception today, with a beautiful Maori mat which he draped and tied round the shoulders of the Achilles' commander. Mr Mitchell referred to the history of the last war, when Captain Halsey' of H.M.S. New Zealand, wore the kiwi mat, presented to him on a visit to the Dominion, at the Battle of Jutland. f‘ln order to keep that tradition alive we are presenting Captain Parry with the kiwi mat so that he can wear it in future naval engagements,” said Mr Mitchell, amid applause.