COMFORTS IN LIBYA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1942, Page 3

COMFORTS IN LIBYA

CALL ON PATRIOTIC FUNDS PROBABLE OUTLAY OF £lO,OOO. IN LATEST CAMPAIGN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Present indications are that the cost to the New Zealand National Patriotic Fund of the second Libyan campaign may be the greater part of £lO,OOO. This is shown in a report received recently by the Patriotic Fund Board from its commissioner, LieutenantColonel F. Waite. A large quantity of comforts was distributed free and on top of this losses in stock and cash were suffered through enemy action. “These confused battles do not conform to any previous pattern of warfare,” Colonel Waite comments. “Never before have we had a campaign in which so many medical officers, chaplains and welfare workers were taken prisoner. Anything that cannot both fight hard and run fast is very much at a disadvantage in desert warfare.” When Colonel Waite wrote, the losses suffered had not been determined finally. According to information then available, six of the Y.M.C.A. personnel were lost and three vehicles; Goods and money were also captured by the enemy. Comforts worth over £5OOO (Egyptian) were distributed free to the troops. These goods comprised chocolate, cigarettes, matches, New Zealand tobacco, toilet requisites, and tinned fruit.

Cash on a mobile van totalling £445 (Egyptian) was lost through enemy action. and cases of goods to the value of £742 (Egyptian) were lost through the same cause en route to Tobruk. In addition. Colonel Waite estimated that losses with the 6th Brigade might be £lOOO (Egyptian) in cash and stock. Assistance from the patriotic funds was given to a large number of men captured by the Germans and taken to Bardia. These men were subsequently released, but when they arrived at Maadi they needed special food, and Colonel Waite authorised the camp authorities to charge the cost to the Patriotic Fund. In expressing appreciation of this action, the camp commandant wrote to Colonel .Waite: —"The continued generosity of your board in the matter of grants for the welfare of the troops is much appreciated, and I should like to say that the provision of the amount in question did much to make possible the little extras which made all the difference between Army rations and suitable diet for debilitated men.”

Funds provided by Colonel Waite also paid for cutting the ex-prisoners’ hair and beards. The following receipt from the camp barbers’ shop speaks for itself:“Received from National Patriotic Fund the sum of 200 piastres, being payment for cutting hair and beards of 124 men, marched in from prisoner-of-war camp, Bardia.”