PRISONERS' PARCELS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 168, 15 October 1941, Page 6

PRISONERS' PARCELS

GO THROUGH SWITZERLAND

NO MORE LONDON DISPATCHING

Following requests to the Government to clarify the position that has arisen over the dispatch of parcels to prisoners of war, parcels will in future be packed in the Dominion and sent via America to Switzerland, instead of going to London for re-

packing

Advice to this effect has been received by the Auckland prisoners of war inquiry office of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society.

British censorship authorities stated that they could not now agree to censor in Britain more parcels forwarded by-next-of-kin in New Zealand to prisoners of war. The British Post O'fTice also wished that pareels. like letters, should be l'onvardrd via New York and Lisbon. This

would involve parcels being scut lo n central Red Cross depot in New Zealand for censorship, repacking and dispatch to Switzerland. The Joint Council has been' requested by the Prime Department lo set up facilities in the Dominion, and in establishing depots in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. In view of the change of arrangements, and in case there is a ijossibility of any of the parcels already dispatched not reaching their destination, the office is making inquiries as to whether the postal authorities will permit the dispatch of another parcel by next-of-kin without waiting for the prescribed three months' interval. The office has also received information that the International Red Cross is making arrangements for shipments through Tnrkey to Greece of foodstuffs for prisoners of Avar, particularly those in hospital. RED AIR FORCE GREW IN SECRECY In all the British and American journals, comment on the Russian Air Force at the beginning of the campaign in June was remarkably guarded. It was generally stated that like the other services the Russian Air Force had been developed under a cloak of secrecy. The usually well-informed Aeroplane said that information about the strength and .equipment of the Red Air Force fleet had been more scarce than that of any other major power. The aeronautical correspondent of the Times said that it was known thai Russia had been hard at work for years trying to build up a huge force, but what that effort has produced is somewhat doubtful. Probably Russia has somewhere about 10,000 service aircraft of all types, with a front-lino strength of 5000 machines. The rather impressive total is apt to be'misleading, however, for many of tho types arc obsolescent and even obsolete, while it is generally believed that she she no great reserves, that the general standard of her pilots and flying crews is not high, that the workmanship in the factory ami maintenance units is not up to Western standards, and that her rate of production is small by comparison with the huge industry that has been built up." CHURCHILL SLIP?—BRITISH NAVAL BUILDING In the opinion of naval commentators, Prime Minister Winston Churchill let go a jealously guarded naval secret in his radiocast, when he said his Atlantic voyage to the meeting with President Roosevelt was made in "almost the newest" British battleship—the Prince of Wales. If the Prince of Wales is not the newest any more the honour would belong to the battleship Duke of York, the third 35,000-tonn'er of the George V class, never previously mentioned as in service. Two other battlewaggons of the same class are due to be finished this year. NEW DISEASE IN SLOVAKIA : CHURCHILLISM The Slovak Government press involuntarily gives proof of the fact that in Slovakia the anti-German and the Czechoslovak national conception are gaining ground. The Fascist Slovak paper Gardista writes of the new disease of "Ghurchillism," which is spreading in Slovakia, and the victims of which "sit in coffee houses, spread Avild rumours, and at night listen to London and Boston, and prove to yon on every occasion that London is right and Berlin is wrong"