ANZACS IN BRITAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21204, 29 August 1940, Page 5

ANZACS IN BRITAIN

FEW “GROUSES” HEARD IMPRESSIONS OF NEWSPAPERS DIRECTION SIGNS MISSED (From the Official War Correspondent with the .New Zealand Forces in Great Britain.) The New Zealand boys generally, although their adventuring has been mostly of short radius, have accumulated a wide variety of experiences and impressions. On leave, wherever they went, they had time of their lives. The further they went the better the time, because the fewer there were in a place the greater the individual attention and hospitality each received. The first private to visit Birmingham came back telling that he simply could not spend there. No-' body would take his money. None who went to London returned with that complaint. But there were a few grouses. “Why can't we get threepenny bits, instead of having to load our pockets with pennies?” “Don’t they have real newspapers in this country?” That one could have been predicted. The “popular” London morning papers appeal to few New Zealanders—and the evening papers are worse! Paper boys who sell in the camps do not carry The Times except on order, and very few copies of the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, which ordinarily visiting New Zealanders buy to get a balanced presentation of the news. War-time restrictions on size heighten the contrast between the papers at Home and those here. All the penny papers are now reduced to six pages, and even the Telegraph is no longer satisfying. “Sun-bronzed Giants” One result of their reading the frothier papers has been to make the troops realise the high quality of the New Zealand Press. One man ,\ut a general opinion in his own words: “I’ve often seen where jokers from Home have said what fine papers we have in New Zealand; and I thought it was just kidstakes. It’s not; it’s right! I’d give the whole bunch of these for twenty minutes of the old ( naming one of our metropolitan daily papers. There would be something of nostalgia in that preference*, but there was also sound judgment. The popular papers helped to cook their own goose by the silly things they wrote about our arrival and ap-pearance—“sun-bronzed giants jumping out of their skins” and like nonsense. And it rubbed some of the men the wrong way to find themselves described as wearing “Boy Scout hats trimmed with red ribbon.” On the other hand we did get publicity, for what that may have been worth. For ten days on end, at , least one paper each day, and usually two or three, published a photograph or photographs of New Zealand soldiers on leave. Removal of Signposts The removal of all signposts, and the obliteration of railway station name-boards and all similar signs which might help an enemy to find his way in Britain makes travel, whether on duty or pleasure, a little difficult for friendly newcomers. Civilians are not supposed to answer questions about locality, and in the first weeks of our encampment here, many miles and minutes were wasted in trying to find the shortest way from one camp to another. The New Zealand High Commissioner, with a brigadier, a colonel, a captain and assorted civilian personnel, was delayed in one village for a quarter of an hour, seeking directions to the Railway and Forestry Companies. Finally a civilian cyclist, after being at first unable to help, returned and asked if members of the party could show authority to support their questionings. Upon their doing so he directed them. Other local people, and English troops too, even when satisfied of the bona fides of inquirers, have often no more than a hazy notion of the roads beyond their immediate neighbourhood. Some New Zealand A.S.C. drivers, on a new route for the first time, check their map-read-ing by asking only Canadian troops, whom they declare to be the most reliable guides.