PRISONERS OF WAR

Southland Times, Issue 24890, 2 November 1942, Page 3

PRISONERS OF WAR

600 New Notifications

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 31. Approximately 600 new notifications of prisoners of war were received last week by the Prisoners of War Office, Wellington, which advises next of kin that they will receive by post an official brochure giving all the details about prisoners, their mail and quarterly parcels. This will save their calling at the office. The camp address will be notified when it becomes known by the New Zealand Government. The International Red Cross advised this week that the Italians will allow only khaki coloured shorts. Next of kin are advised that parcels should not be held pending the camp address as there are special labels for London covering these cases. Next of kin whose relations have been prisoners for more than nine months, and have letters stating that the prisoner has not received personal parcels from New Zealand, are requested to send full details to Headquarters Office, Wellington. Next of kin who have been advised that a prisoner has not received any mail from New Zealand should do likewise. Special International Red Cross message forms, issued by the Prisoners of War Office, are enabling many next of kin to get an urgent reply. A large batch of returned letter forms was received through Geneva from the various camps dated from the middle to the end of August. Statistics of the losses officially reported by camp leaders in respect to bulk consignments of Red Cross parcels show that in January the loss through pilfering of food parcels did not exceed one in every 1250 parcels; the loss of tobacco was one in 270 and of medical parcels one in 370. The heaviest pilfering was in clothing sent in bulk quantities. In this case it was 1.32 per cent, for January and February. Officially notified prisoners now total 7837. The Army total is 7527 and the Air Force 220.