Indian Officers Settling in New Zealand

Chronicle (Levin), 31 January 1948, Page 2

Indian Officers Settling in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, Jan. 30. Of some 200 oiiicers of the Indian Army who elected to leave the service before its reconstitution last August, about 50 have decided to settle in New Zealand with their wives and families. They were among 850 passengers who arrived in the 22,445-ton former troop transport Asturias. The vessel also brought a nuruber of persons of mixed British and Indian descent who will make their homes in the Dominion, and a large booking from Australia. Major W. J. A. Atirhinleck, cousin of the Fielrl-Marshal, Sir Clande Auchinleck, was one of the group that has seen rcgular service in India for three years. 'He was a member of his cousin 'a personal 'staff and slmred some of the trials and ti'ibulati.ms of the administration i'n the country that, in his own words, was "seething with discontent. ' '

Dr.'R. L. -H. Minchin, a civilian passenger, who had spent 14 years in India, saw much bloodshed on the Hindustan-Pakistan border towards the elose of last year. For many months he was 'the only doetor in the primitive refugee camp where, for a short time, 4000 persons were congregated. AfEairs in India today he described as absolutely chaotic. New Zealand, he said, would be regarded by many of the ship's passengers as one of the few havens left in tlie troubled world.