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Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1942, Page 2

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INVALIDED SOLDIERS largest group yet to reach DOMINION. TOOK PART IN LIBYA CAMPAIGN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. There has now arrived home the largest group of New Zealand soldiers wounded in battle in this war, they having left the Middle East shortly after the campaign in which the New Zealand Division and other British forces fought their way from the Egyptian border to Tobruk. Though the New Zealand troops had been in battle in Greece and Crete, neither of those battles was as prolonged as the fighting in Libya, and soldiers returning previously have included a greater proportion of sick than the latest party. The officer of highest rank among them was Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Page, Wellington. Colonel Page was listed at one time as a prisoner of war, he and a number of other wounded New Zealanders being actually in the hands of the enemy for a short time. He is a member of the New Zealand Permanent Staff, and before the war was a prominent Rugby football player, representing Wellington and New Zealand. He departed with the first echelon.

Lieutenant O. S. Pepper, Auckland, another New Zealand Rugby representative, and Lieutenant R. Miller, Auckland. one of the official war correspondents, were also aboard.

It was while the New Zealanders were fighting in the North African desert that they learnt of the outbreak of war in the Pacific Ocean. Those who have now returned say that the news then did not cause any worry among the troops, but now that the threat has come toward New Zealand they expect their comrades they left behind will be much more concerned and will wish that they could be guarding their native shores. The wounded and next-of-kin were addressed by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, and other representative speakers. Each welcomed them home and expressed the wish that they would soon be restored to health. Mr Fraser said the courageous spirit of the wounded, even those who would be under disabilities for life, was an example to the people of New Zealand. Military authorities had bestowed great praise on the soldiers from New Zealand, he said, remarking on the important role of the New Zealanders in the recent fighting in Africa. Three hundred and sixty-eight men returned.