SYRIA’S WELCOME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1942, Page 3

SYRIA’S WELCOME

NEW ZEALANDERS MARCH THROUGH BEIRUT WITH FREE FRENCH & R.A.F. GENERAL FREYBERG TAKES SALUTE. (From the N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) BEIRUT, April 11. Arabs, Syrians, French and British cheered with enthusiasm as New Zealand, Free French and R.A.F. troops marched in ceremonial parade through the streets of Beirut this week. It was by far the most colourful and spectacular parade in which the New Zealand troops had taken part in the Middle East. Major-General Freyberg took' the salute as hundreds of New Zealanders and French cavalry mechanised units marched past. General Freyberg was cheered by the crowd as he walked down the steps of his hotel on to a specially-ci’Ccted dais which was the saluting base. The town was gay with bunting, Union Jacks and flags of the Free French forces flying side by side from many buildings. Thousands lined the five-mile route through the city streets and when the infantry marched past with bayonets fixed, followed by a mobile column, great cheers rang through the old Syrian city. An ovation greeted the commander of the parade, a newly-promoted brigadier, when he arrived at the head of the procession . He dismounted from his car and took up a position on the dais beside General Freyberg. At the head of the procession was the New Zealand brigade band playing martial strains. Resplendent Free French cavalry added a touch of pageantry that seemed almost out of place in a world of mechanised war.

Along came the guns of a New Zealand field artillery regiment, rugged, businesslike 25-pounders, that moved silently over the cobblestones on their pneumatic tyres. They were followed by the guns of a New Zealand antitank regiment. Bayonets flashed as infantrymen from Auckland, Wellington, and the South Island mhrehed with heads high and arms swinging. A veteran officer of the last war led the detachment of the R.A.F.

Led by their own trumpet band, the French Foreign Legion, marching in column of sixes, contributed much to a colourful parade. A long mobile column rumbled past, and at the end of the procession came two ambulances with two New Zealand sisters beside the drivers. Soldiers and onlookers — French, British, Australian and New Zealand—cheered and sprang to attention as the girls of the New Zealand >Army Nursing Service went by.