OVERSEAS PARCELS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 53, 2 March 1945, Page 4

OVERSEAS PARCELS

ONLY LIMITED NUMBER NOW

EFFECTS OF FLUID WARFARE

The president of the Whakatane branch of the Red Cross Society (Mrs W. Sullivan) has received the following information from the Auckland Provincial Committee of the Sick and Wounded and Distress Fund: — We have been advised by cable, that next of Kin Quarterly Parcels cannot be accepted in future for any of the following camps: Stalag 11B; Stalag 1ID; Stalag IIIA; Stalag . IIIB; Stalag IIIC; Stalag HID; Stalag VIIIA; Stalag VII1B; Stalag VIUC; , Stalag XXA; Stalag XXB; Stalag 344; . Ol'lag 64; Stalag Luft III; Stalag Luft IV; Stalag Luft VII. The nosition briefly is that since t " ~ 9 these camps are in the. path of the advancing Allied armies it is extremely improbably that any parcels addressed to them will ever be delivered to the prisoners for whom they are intended. In view of the fluid position on all fronts in Germany there is considerable doubt whether it will prove possible to deliver Next of Kin parcels to Prisoners of War in other camps in Germany. The British War Organisation in England, have suggested to Next of Kin in the United Kingdom that parcels, should not be despatched but in cases where Next of Kin particularly desire to send a parcel, they are arranging for this to be done. In all the circumstances and particularly in view of the fact that it takes three months for a parcel to reach its destination from New Zealand, it has been decided that the official Red Cross Label and other parcel forms will not be issued by the Prisoners of War Enquiry Offices, for the general despatch of Next of Kin parcels from New Zea-. land to Prisoners of War Camps in Europe. But if, notwithstanding all the uncertainty any next of kin do particularly desire to despatch parcels s to camps other than, those named above arrangements will be made for them to do so on application to the nearest Prisoner of War Enquiry Office. It Avili of course be understood that in any such cases there can be no assurance whatever of the parcels reaching the addressees.