HANDLING REFUGEES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 20, 19 October 1943, Page 5

HANDLING REFUGEES

New Zealanders Help In Italy N.Z.E.F, Official News Service. SOUTHERN ITALY, Oct. 15. A few miles from a city on the coast of Italy are the huts and compounds of ■a former prisoner of war transit camp well known to many captured New Zealanders who spent several weeks there before being transferred to permanent camps in other parts of the country. New Zealanders are again in the camp, this time as members of a prisoner of war sub-cominission set up to deal not only with troops who escaped from enemy hands, but with thousands of. refugees and soldiers of other nationalities who have made their way south. When I visited the camp yesterday, I found New Zealanders playing an active part with officers and men from Britain and the Dominions in coping with a great stream of people seeking care and protection behind our lines. Yugoslavs of both sexes formed’the great majority, but there were also Russians, Frenchmen, Jews, Greeks, Chinese and Poles. They have been formed into orderly groups and housed in huts and are being fed on the British Army rations scale, with special provision for women and children. / It was no easy task to sort out such, a great influx of refugees while at the same time restoring the camp to a state of orderliness, but the New Zealanders were as enthusiastic as all the others entrusted with the task. Language differences at first were a great drawback, but now, aided by interpreters drawn from the refugees and by an increasing understanding of other differences, those .in charge have- their various sections living happily enough and as comfortably as possible in their new surroundings. “You must come and see my Russians,” ‘a New Zealand officer said to me. “They are .great. They will do anything you ask them and in quick time. They are soldiers of course and their discipline is excellent.” Russians Who Escaped. I met the Russians —big fellows, mostly clean shaven and smart of bearing. They saluted us respectfully and were willing to be photographed with New Zealanders. They were men who had been captured on the Russian front and brought to prisoner of war camps 'in Italy and had made their escape. The Chinese were quiet but friendly merchant seamen. 'An officer of the Yugoslav Royal Army who spoke excellent English co-operated with the New Zealanders in organizing working parties to improve the refugees’ living conditions. In the hospital, wings were established for men and women. I found a New Zealand medical officer and a British officer with their staff and refugees with nursing experience busily engaged in tending the sick. A small boy crying lustily was brought by his Yugoslav mother. “He does not like the blue stuff,” said the mother in English, pointing to an application made to insect bites. “All ■right, bring him in here,’’ replied the medical officer who thereupon covered the offending blue with plaster. Helping in the organization of such a camp has been a completely new experience for the New Zealanders, many of whom come from fighting units, but they find the work interesting and in many ways instructive, as giving insight into the varying political feelings of those under their charge.