MAORI WELCOME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1943, Page 2

MAORI WELCOME

MRS ROOSEVELT VISITING ROTORUA EXTENDED TOUR YESTERDAY. AMERICAN CAMPS & HOSPITALS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Farewelled at the Wellington railway station last night by the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, Mrs Roosevelt, accompanied by her official party, travelled overnight to Rotorua, where her first engagement this morning is a civic reception at 11 o’clock.

This afternoon she will visit Whakarewarewa to see the thermal sights, and will proceed from there to a farm where she will sec land girls at work. She will also visit a New Zealand Army convalescent hospital. In the evening she will be accorded a full Maori welcome at Tamatekapua, leaving later for Auckland, where she is due tomorrow morning.

Mrs Roosevelt completed another full day in Wellington with a civic reception at the Majestic Theatre and a private dinner at which she was the guest of the United, States Charge d’Affaires in New Zealand, Mr Raymond Cox. She devoted yesterday morning to visits to United States Marine Camps and hospitals. Travelling in the GovernorGeneral’s car, which had been placed at her disposal, she was accompanied by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, the commanding general of the United States Marine Corps in the area, Mrs Fraser, Lieutenant-Commander H. D. Moulton, and Captain H. G. Hclmore, A.D.C. to the Governor-General. The afternoon was spent by Mrs Roosevelt in visiting war factories, in which she saw women at war work, a women war-workers’ hostel, and the prisoners of war parcel-packing depot. SPIRIT OF LEARNING. Speaking at the civic reception extended to her in Wellington last evening. Mrs Roosevelt gave an interestingaccount of the visit of the King and Queen to the United States and went on to say that she felt they should always approach anything new in the spirit of learning and she hoped to take back something from New Zealand. It was good for all of them to recognise the fine things that people did in other countries. She would go back to the United States not only with impressions of what she had seen but with the knowledge that she had felt here the same spirit of love of freedom. “I think it is that spirit which has made you so kind to our boys, I am very proud to hear that they have made a good name for themselves and when I return the whole country will also be proud to hear not only of their military achievements but also that they have done so well as diplomats.” They would know well that Americans were traditionally a little critical of British policy, but things had happened since their boys had been in and come to know Britain. She did not know of one who, having been there a few weeks, did not say, “I’ve made friends; I like the people. They’re just like us, though they talk a little different.” She hoped that that would be the spirit of the whole of the United Nations. Their hopes for the future would never be realised unless the people of the nations worked together and were willing to try and understand each other, respect each other, and iron cut their differences with tolerance and patience. She believed, with her husband, that as long as a people held the right of free ballot they would always remain free. But they must use this ballot with thoughtfulness. She hoped that the people of her own nation would be more conscious of that as they faced in the post-war period problems they had never faced before. They must work for those things they believed in; for the world as well as themselevs. Her husband sent his best , wishes to the people of New Zealand ( and to his people in it and in all the , islands of the South-West Pacific. “I i come just as a goodwill messenger to wish you the best of luck, and may. God be with us all,” concluded Mrs Roosevelt.