SONG & SPEECH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1941, Page 3

SONG & SPEECH

NEW ZEALANDERS CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY OF LEAVING DOMINION. GATHERINGS IN EGYPT tN.Z.E.F. Official News Service'. EGYPT. January 16 I Thoughts of home and memories of a year that has known disappointments and compensations alike were kindled by song and speech a few nights ago in a smoke-filled marquee somewhere in the Western Desert Scone and .sentiment were typical of the way in which soldiers of the N.Z.E.F. celebrated the first anniversary of their departure from the Dominion. Some of the units in the field marked the occasion by holding special dinners or smoke concerts that lasted far into the night, and at gatherings such as these the year was lived all over again. In one mess tent, to which the men invited their officers, the atmosphere < f an estaminet of the las’ war recaptured. The night rang with song and laughter, as from a liUlc improvised stage soldier- entertainers made their contributions to the evening's fun and their audience joined in lusty choruses. Twenty-five years seemed to have wrought few changes in the spirit of the Nev. Zealand soldier The songs these men sang were the rollicking and witty commentaries on life that their fathers knew, however much the notes and the words may have been reshutlled in the passing "f time The blue' haze ot tobacco smoke, the dim light "f , kerosene lamps, the chink of glass and / the hubbub of talk had surely not ; changed at all Speeches which were not very eb>- j quent, but whose gap-; were tilled by the thoughts of those who sal and lis- . te.ned in silence ’old of the place that home held rn the hearts of .'ill uf ■