DISABLED PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 5

DISABLED PRISONERS

Empire And U.S. Personnel Being Exchanged

N.Z. MEN INCLUDED

(British Official Wireless anil Press Assn.) (Received October 19, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, October IS. The Foreign Office announces that the return of British Empire and United States disabled prisoners of war from Germany under the provisions of the Geneva Convention is in progress. The first parties are being embarked at Gothenburg, Sweden, for the voyage home.

This repatriation follows agreements made between the British and German Governments and between the United States and German Governments. The agreements provide for mutual repatriation from both sides, regardless of rank or numbers, of all seriously sick and seriously wounded prisoners of war . recommended by the medical authorities. Doctors, chaplains, medical orderlies & stretcher-bearers in excess of those needed for the care of their fellow prisoners are also being repatriated. The repatriation is being carried out in three separate movements. First, a hospital ship and a transport have delivered at Gothenburg German prisoners from camps in Britain, Canada and the United States. For the return voyage they will be joined by a Swedish ship and three ships will bring back more than 4,000 men all of whom have been brought to Gothenburg from Germany. . The great majority of them belong to Britain, but there are also some Canadians and seventeen Americans. Secondly, German ships have arrived at an Allied port in Northwest Africa. These ships did not bring Allied prisoners, but will embark a large number of German prisoners and return to a Germancontrolled port in France. Exchange At Barcelona.

Thirdly, a British hospital ship and transport will shortly reach Barcelona with German prisoners from the Middle East. These ships will return to a Middle East port with more than 1,009 men who will have been brought to Barcelona in German ships from a German-con-trolled port in France and who belong to the forces of Australia, .Now Zealand, South Africa, India, Cyprus, Palestine and other parts of the British Commonwelih. The United States will not take part in this movement. The- ships coneoriTeFl sail under safe conduct and carry Rod Cross delegates as neutral observers. The Foreign Office states that the successful conclusion of the negotiations is largely due to the unfailing co-opera-tion of the Swiss government in its capacity of protecting power. Gratitude to the Swedish and Spanish Governments for ready help at ports of transfer is also expressed. The hospital ship Atlantis sailed from a Scottish port on October 14 for Gothenburg with 842 German. prisoners of war and protected and civilian personnel. No incidents marked the embarkation. The Empress of Russia took some German repatriated prisoners to Gothenburg. , Reuter’s correspondent at Gothenburg says that 4340 British and American repatriated prisoners, mostly sick and wounded men, travelled from Germany to Gothenburg in two German hospital ships and in six trains. _.They are due to leave for the United Kingdom tonight aboard the Atlantis, the Empress of Russia and the Drottingholm. Most ot the prisoners praised the cleanliness Ot the camps. Some complained of ill-treat-ment, but all agreed that conditions had improved enormously in- the last two years. Each prisoner received a gift packet of fruit, sweets and cigarettes from the Swedish Red Cross. This is the first British-German prisoners’ repatriation since the outbreak of war. A similar repatriation was attempted in 1941, but broke down at the eleventh hour when the prisoners were actually aboard ship ready to sail.