CHURCH PARADES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1941, Page 6

CHURCH PARADES

... BEAUTIFUL GARRISON EDIFICE USED. NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN MIDDLE EAST. (From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, August 30. Among the good things a New Zealand Battalion will like to remember in the Middle East is the opportunity recently presented of holding the Sunday Church parade in a beautiful garrison church set in surroundings so picturesque, that it could easily have been a church parade in a typical English village. The unit concerned had recently arrived in the town from a wilderness where a now camp had been established, and where they lacked many of those amenities usually found in a camp well established. The battalion is really in barracks where the comfortable quarters are appreciated after the rigours of a tented camp in a desert waste. The small town in which the barracks are situated is thickly wooded with a wide variety of tre-s which give a freshness fully appreciated only by those whose sole scenery has been sand and more sand.

The fine garrison church, which has for some years served British regular troops of the Church of England, completes a pleasing picture. Built in stone, the church is large and well ventilated, making the interior very cool. Many of the seats have been donated by regular units of the British Army. It was only natural that at the first opportunity the New Zealand battalion held the Anglican Church parade at the church, the service being conducted by a New Zealand padre. On the same Sunday Catholic members of'the battalion attended mass in the garrison Catholic Church and all soldiers present were given crucifixes sent to the Middle East by Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminister, Appropriately the motto inscribed om the'back of these crucifixes is “the pledge of Victory.”