W.A.A.C’S. OVERSEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1943, Page 2

W.A.A.C’S. OVERSEAS

SERVICE IN SOUTH PACIFIC LARGE PARTY ARRIVES (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEW CALEDONIA. Tired but happy, a big party of New Zealand W.A.A.C. personnel has arrived safely at a South Pacific island to do duty in a general hospital. Only a few days after leaving New Zealand the ship which carried these girls arrived at its destination, and the next morning a convoy of sedan cars nearly a score of them —set off for the hospital site. A warm greeting awaited the girls, all of whom were volunteers for overseas service, and they were hospitably entertained to lunch at a battalion camp on the way to their new home. When, at the end of the journey, they climbed from the cars, wondering, perhaps, at the strangeness of the new land to which they had come, they were welcomed by Colonel A. A. Tennent, on behalf of the hospital staff, quickly accommodated in quarters already prepared for them, and given a cup of afternoon tea. The hospital authorities had done everything possible to assure the girls’ comfort in the block of tents which is to be known as the “Waacary,” and arrangements are in train for guest evenings at messes in nearby camps at which the girls will be made to feel at home. Some of the new arrivals are nursing sisters, but the great majority are W.A.A.C.'s. Their trip over had been calm, and though the car journey had been tiring, a warm sun greeted them at their destination.