TRACING MISSING PERSONNEL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23967, 7 June 1943, Page 6

TRACING MISSING PERSONNEL

ROUTINE FOLLOWED BY ARMY “THOROUGH AND CONTINUOUS EFFORTS” (P.A.) WELLINGTON. June 5. “Relatives of soldiers who have been posted as missing in the Middle East can be assured that the New Zealand Army authorities make thorough and continuous efforts to trace all missing personnel,” said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) to-day. The work was undertaken by the casualty section of the overseas base and no source of information that might even remotely be of use was overlooked. When a soldier was posted missing the following routine steps were taken: (a) Medical returns were checked to make sure the man was missing and not in hospital; (b) returns of the graves registration unit in the field were checked; (c) units were required to hold a court of inquiry to decide whether a soldier was to be posted missing, or believed killed, or prisoner, ,etc.; (d) a further court of inquiry was held for the same purpose after the lapse of three and six months, while meanwhile units were instructed to forward any information that might come to hand; (e) the casualty section kept available complete particulars about every man, and every soldier making inquiries was questioned for information about men missing from his or other units; (f) all escapees were personally interviewed about men missing from the list; (g) checks were made with the International Red Cross lists; (hj) the International Red Cross had been requested to instruct camp leaders in the various prisoner of war camps in Italy to prepare rolls of New Zealand personnel for the purpose of checking; (i) periodically a notice was published in the “N.Z.E.F. Times” requesting information about missing men.

Mr Fraser added that, apart from this routine procedure, further steps recently had been taken in an endeavour to obtain additional information about missing men. Complete rolls of missing men had been issued to units with a request for information about men of their own units or those closely associated with them in the campaigns in Greece and Crete. Rolls also were published in the “N.Z.E.F. Times” with the same request. Any information received was passed on to the next-of-kin.