COMRADES IN ARMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1943, Page 4

COMRADES IN ARMS

PEOPLES OF THE EMPIRE. NEW ZEALANDERS & INDIANS. (NZE.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, September 20. A better understanding among people of the Empire in times of peace is indicated no better than by -the friendliness and respect existing between New Zealand troops in the Middle East and meh of the Fourth Indian ivision with whom they were associated in may desert engagements. This friendship has been fostered since then by social gatherings at which they have mixed freely and managed to entertain themselves happily in spite of language difficulties. Not long ago a party of New Zealanders was entertained by the Indians at their rest home and last night the New Zealanders were hosts to about 100 Indians. They gathered in a messroom where ice cream, cool drinks and food prepared the way for conversation, more by sign language than anything else, but for all that surprisingly free and easy.

Early in the evening a short visit was paid by the GOC, 2NZEF, Lt.General Sir Bernard Freyberg, V. C., who through an interpreter spoke of the New Zealanders’ associations with the Indians in the desert. They would be proud to fight alongside them on any future occasion, he said. General Freyberg remarked that he had mentioned the Indians at the many meetings he had addressed in New Zealand and that such mention had always produced great applause. The New Zealanders then drank to the health of the Indians and sang “For They are Jolly Good Fellows.” On behalf of the Indians is was stated that they greatly appreciated their contact with the New Zealand Division. General Freyberg shook hands with many of the Indians. Tall, turbanned Sikhs and lithe Gurkhas, with their heads shaven except for a small tuft or toki, and complete with their dreaded Khukhris (knives), gathered in small groups with the New Zealanders, all friendly, smiling and nodding approval of the occasion. The Sikh never cuts his hair and always wears his turban. The Gurkha shaves his head except for the Toki, which is to take him to heaven. The use of the khukhris was, of course, one of the main topics of conversation. A New Zealand band played several numbers and later films of New Zealand and India were shown in the Lowry Hut by the Mobile Cinema Unit.