MORE LIKE ALLIES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21196, 20 August 1940, Page 7

MORE LIKE ALLIES

ITALIANS AND BRITISH VOYAGE BACK TO ENGLAND (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON. July 18 A party of almost 300 Britons—diplomats, consuls, journalists and their wives and families—arrived in Glasgow from Italy yesterday on hoard the liner Monarch of Bermuda after a voyage which passengers said resembled in many respects a tour de luxe. The first part of the voyage home was on board the Italian liner Conte Rosse to Lisbon, where the party joined the Monarch of Bermuda—the liner which two weeks ago set out from the Clyde with a similar party of homeward-bound Italians from Britain. “Kindness aboard the Conte Rosse was on a lavish scale,” they said. “It was almost embarrassing. If we had been allies instead of enemies we could not have been treated with more courtesy.” True to tradition, the last night on board was spent in distributing the prizes for sports competitions which had taken place in the Conte Rosse. Sir Percy Loraine, British Ambassador in Rome, and Sir Noel Charles, Minister at the Home Embassy, and Lady Charles were among the home-coming party. The journey from Rome to Britain took exactly 19 days, although normally it would have employed five. The voyage was practically without incident, although quite frequently ships and aircraft appeared and looked at the liner. The word “Diplomat” painted in huge white letters on the liner’s side and illuminated at night satisfied them. A number of the passengers expressed the view that the majority of the Italian people are not in sympathy with Mussolini’s entry into the war. “Italians are sincere in their liking for the British and that is something that cannot be said of their sentiment towards the Germans.” said one passenger.