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CUT OUT AND POST
It Happened in S.A. This Week
'The Mail's' Weekly Digest for the Troops
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1945.
IT certainly did happen in South Australia this week.
* The news that you chaps have done your job and
soon will come marching home brought a re-action
which will ever remain in the minds of those who saw it.
IT burst on Adelaide on Friday
night (August 10), about
10.30, news which seemed too
good to be true, news that Japan
had made her first peace offer.
It came in time for picture
crowds to gather in the streets
after the shows. The excitement
restrained at first, rapidly in
creased in intensity until city
streets resounded with the cheers
and laughter of thousands of
people. Strangers joined hands
in King William street and sang
'Auld Lang Syne.'
More than 1,000 formed them
selves into a cheering procession
behind three sailors, marched
down King William street. A
long crocodile was still wending
its way through the streets at 1
a.m. Thousands cheerfully
walked home in drizzling rain.
On Saturday morning a special
meeting of Executive Council was
held, regulations were hurriedly
made so that any special VP
holidays proclaimed by the Com
monwealth would cover State
awards, too. And Premier Play
ford sketched the form South
Australian celebrations would
take.
Said Police Commissioner Johns,
'The police are not killjoys.
Everyone will be allowed to en
joy themselves, provided they do
not let their enthusiasm run riot
and interfere with the enjoyment
of others.'
On Saturday night teen-agers
came into town, marched aim
lessly up and down the streets,
making a noise and something of
a welter of things. Older people,
who realised what war meant,
and that it wasn't over yet,
watched silently, a little sickened.
Barmen's Holiday
ON Sunday night a victory procession
which at one time numbered about
1.500 youths and girls. marching 20
abreast took charge of Adelaide streets
for nearly five hours in riotous cele
bration. They left a trail of vandalism
—smashed windows, broken road signs,
damaged weighing machines. They left
the Adelaide Arcade looking be though
it had been hit by a tornado.
The cheering, yelling, flag-waving mob
surged down the ramp to the railway
station, knocked over a score of milk
cans, kicked them up King William
road. Outside Elder Park 300 or them
defied, insulted, and pelted two motor
traffic constables, were scattered as the
policemen drove through them at high
speed.
On Monday Police Commissioner Johns
warned: 'The police will not inter
fere with genuine rejoicing, but any
thing encroaching upon the freedom
of the individual or interfering with
other people's property will be imme
diately stopped.'
The hooligans took the hint.
Barmen, who wanted treble pay and
two days' holiday in lieu of the VP
holidays, were offered only double pay
by the L.V.A., met on Tuesday night
announced, 'In view of the disturbance
and vandalism that has occurred in
South Australia before peace has been
declared. It Is in the best interests of
the public that the bars be closed on
VP holidays.'
So a special quota of three days'
liquor, which had been delivered to
hotels on condition that they opened
on the holidays, remained in hotel cel
lars.
But when the news came through at
8.30 a.m. on Wednesday that the Japa
nese had accepted unconditional sur
render, hooliganism and vandalism were
conspicuous by their absence.
Crowds came from everywhere, and soon
the streets were a jampacked mass of
cheering, laughing people. Sirens,
hooters, cowbells, church bells, whistles
announced the news, took it up and
echoed it again. Paper showered down
from the buildings.
Police estimated that there were more
than half a million people in the streets
of Adelaide that day, Peace Day. The
post office handled 90,000 telephone
calls four times the usual holiday traf
fic.
In the afternoon bands played from
city verandahs. There were concerts In
the streets, and singing and dancing.
Official Doings
In opening the civic celebrations Lord
Mayor Walker said. 'Let us rejoice with
all the powers of rejoicing we have.
Our hearts have been burdened with
sorrow and anxiety for six years, and
it will do us all good to give play to
our emotions and to enter whole
heartedly into the vlctory celebrations.'
The people responded.
On Thursday 300,000 people came Into
town to watch the victory march. Fifty
thousand of them gathered in North
terrace outside Parliament House for
the State thanksgiving service. It was
a short, simple ceremony.
Governor Sir Willoughby Norrie spoke,
end there were many tears when Pre
mier Playford declared of those who
had given their lives: 'With humble
ness before God. and with pride in
their glorious achievements, we pledge
ourselves to hold them in perpetual re
membrance.'
Thousands attended thanksgiving church
services.
The celebrations wound up with a
spectacular display of Army rockets
from Montefiore Hill on Thursday night
Now the city is almost back to nor
mal, except that there Is a noticeable
change in the atmosphere. Everyone
seems to be smiling.
Nothing else worth mentioning seems
to have happened this week.
$