MISSING SOLDIERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 September 1941, Page 4

MISSING SOLDIERS

MANY NOT YET ACCOUNTED FOR GOVERNMENT AWAITING INFORMATION. STATEMENT BY MR NASH. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “My attention has been drawn to a statement, dated London, August 12, which was published in the Press on Monday, September 1, referring to a special department set up in New Zealand House, London, for keeping in contact with some 4000 to 5000 New Zealanders in German prison camps,” said the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Nash, in a statement yesterday. "It is added also in this statement that the men have been transferred to these camps since they were captured in Greece and Crete.

“As the public will be aware from my statement in the House on Thursday last, the Government is still awaiting official advice as to whether or not some 3000 men who are missing and still unaccounted for are prisoners of war,” said Mr Nash. “I have been in communication with the High Commissioner, who informs me that it is incorrect to say that this number are prisoners of war, and that in fact official advice is still awaited in his office, as it is here, about the fate of the men who have been reported as missing. Further, there is no information as yet to say that all the men captured in the campaigns in Greece and Crete have been transferred to prison camps in Germany. “The public can be assured that as soon as this information is received by the Government notification will be sent immediately to next-;of-kin.”