I lectured in Santiago on the following evening
for the British Red Cross and a Chilian naval charity. The Chilian
flag and the Union Jack were draped together, the band played the
Chilian national anthem, "God Save the King," and the "Marseillaise,"
and the Chilian Minister for Foreign Affairs spoke from the platform
and pinned an Order on my coat. I saw the President and thanked him
for the help that he had given a British expedition. His Government
had spent ?4000 on coal alone. In reply he recalled the part that
British sailors had taken in the making of the Chilian Navy.
The Chilian Railway Department provided a special train to take us
across the Andes, and I proceeded to Montevideo in order to thank
personally the President and Government of Uruguay for the help they
had given generously in the earlier relief voyages. We were
entertained royally at various spots en route. We went also to Buenos
Ayres on a brief call. Then we crossed the Andes again. I had made
arrangements by this time for the men and the staff to go to England.
All hands were keen to take their places in the Empire's fighting
forces. My own immediate task was the relief of the marooned Ross Sea
party, for news had come to me of the 'Aurora's' long drift in the Ross
Sea and of her return in a damaged condition to New Zealand.
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