SAFE HOME AGAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1943, Page 3

SAFE HOME AGAIN

KINO RETURNS TO BRITAIN BV AIR AFTER MEDITERRANEAN TOUR. AND VISITS TO FIGHTING FORCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 25. Jt is announced that his Majesty the King' today returned to Britain after his visit to Nori h Africa and Malta. His plane touched * down at an aerodrome in England shortly after 4 a.m. (G.M.T.) Flying from Britain in a Liberator bomber, his Majesty arrived at a North African airfield on June 12. He drove to Algiers and, after investing the Allied Commander-in-Chief. North-West Africa. General Eisenhower, with the G.C.8., he visited British, United States and French troops, airmen and naval forces in various parts of tne NorthWest African and Mediterranean theatre. On June 20 his Majesty arrived at Malta aboard H.M.S. Aurora and made a tour of the George Cross island. On June 21 he saw a parade in Tripolitania by Eighth Army forces, and subsequently visited hospital and other units there. His Majesty’s tour has occupied 13 days.

The following message has been sent by the Governor-General of New Zealand, Sir Cyril Newall, to the King;—“On behalf of the Government and peoples of New Zealand. as well as personally. I respectfully beg to express our thankfulness for your Majesty's safe return from the visit to North Africa and Malta, which has inspired us all.”

NEW ZEALAND UNIT FORWARD GENERAL HOSPITAL. VISITED BY HIS MAJESTY. IN Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO. June 24. For the first time since he saw the second contingent training in England three years age. the King this week visited a unit of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. , _, Only a few miles from where Mr Churchill spoke io the New Zealand division neat Tripoli, his Majesty saw our most forward general hospital, in which many hundreds of wounded meh from the Eighth Army s Tunisian battles have been cared for in recent months The hospital stands on brown, sunbaked fields at the edge of Tripoli’s orchard district. . „ , , _ After speaking briefly with Colonel Gowei, commanding officer at the hospital, the King, drove slowly along the road through cheeiing lines of New Zealand sisters, nurses, other members of the staff and some of the hospital patients. This was the second visit a member ol the Royal Family has made to New Zealanders in ‘the Middle East. Early last year the Duke of Gloucester inspected formations ot the division in Syria.