TRIBUTE TO N.Z. SOLDIER

Chronicle (Levin), 23 August 1946, Page 5

TRIBUTE TO N.Z. SOLDIER

(Special Correspondent).

turned men's thoughts off enemy inducemen ts

Heceived Thursday, 7 p.m. EON-DON, August 22. A tiibute 1o tlie work of tlie New Zealand sohlier hui (Iraham Ryliurn, of Dunedin, siiu-e (trdained as a minister of the t'resbvterian ('hurch of New Zealand, in coiuiteraciing efforts by the (terinans to obtain recruits aniong British prisoners for tlie so-called British Free Corps, was jiaid by Quartermaster Sergeant J. 11. O. Brown, of Sudbury on Thames, who has just been awarded the D.C.M., for his vvorlc wliile a war prisoner in (lermany. Q.M.S. Brown and Rev. Ryliurn met in.Grgpshagen prisoner of war camp near Ber-liu 'wliere tiro (ronlians were eniipavouring fo, recruit nren .for ihe Eree v.'orpS Uinpng' Vlre /British P I. s ' "A New 'ZeklandeTy'fc frie.kdf'p-i,' -'iriine, Ian Rybirrh, h|boilred ■ uiieeakuigly fo turn the meh's thoiight'S to religion and away from the German off'ers, " states Brown who claims that largely as Ihe result of this work Ihe German Eree Corps scheme met almost a coniplete lack of response. lu October, 1944, the Presbytery of Dunedin agreed to authorise the ordination of Rev. Hyburn and delegated its powers for the purpose to Rev. R. J. Griffiths, a New Zealand Presbyterian cliaplain who was then in the same prison camp. The German authorities agreed to perinit the ordination ceremony to take plaee in the camp and it was " duly carried out with the assistance of representatives of tlie YT.M.C.A. who acted as intermediaries. Q.M.S. Brown, who was a member of Ihe British Anti-tank Regiment, was oue of the chief prosecution witnesses in charges subsequently brought against 1 the few British soldiers who joined the Eree Corps, including tlie eourt martial of Roy Nicholas Courlander, the British born member of the N.Z.E.E.