Reunion in Toronto

Languishing behind barbed wire in Germany and Japan, many a Canadian had dreamed of an epic postwar party, and wondered if it would ever come true. Last week it did.

The Ontario branch of the Canadian Prisoners of War Relatives Association took over the entire convention floor of Toronto's bustling Royal York Hotel. Manager Jack Johnson battened down his furniture, opened the doors of his concert and banquet halls, and shuddered. Into the rooms swarmed 1,500 former captives, all of them hell-bent for a do. Among them were veterans of the fall of Hong Kong, wearing a gold "H.K." on a circular red patch; survivors of Dieppe; scores of airmen shot down over Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Magdeburg and Stuttgart. Some of the celebrants had been flown in by a former R.C.A.F. flying instructor named Ross C. ("Bill") Shepherd, who offered to fly amputation cases to the party on a free shuttle service. (He was overwhelmed with applications from veterans who wanted to go and by plain citizens who wanted to pay the expense.)

The floor show had to be called off when hilarious veterans scrambled to get into the act and airmen distracted the audience with a rousing crap game. Bottles of beer consumed were measured in thousands; no one dared to estimate (or particularly cared) how much strong stuff was downed.

The boys had earned their night. One admiring observer murmured: "Nothing like it since the great Canadian Corps reunion in 1934. . . ."

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