TROOPS IN CAIRO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1940, Page 8

TROOPS IN CAIRO

NEW ZEALANDERS ATTEND CHURCH PARADE.

WELCOME BY BISHOP OF EGYPT.

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) March 31

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 to Egypt today by the Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan, the Rt. Rev. Dr. L. H. Gwynne, C.M.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 (the Ven. F. F. Johnston) and the senior chaplain of the New Zealand Force (the Rev. E. B. Moore). 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.

In his address of welcome, the Bishop recalled that in the last war he had had the privilege of confirming and preaching among the New Zealand contingent in France. He knew that some of those in the pi esent force had served also in the Great War, and of them he 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 the 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 the church, led by the combined infantry battalion bands, 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 more characteristically Egyptian part of the city. There, as the music of the band announced the coming of the troops, donkey-cart drivers pulled in 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 fables 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. The 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.