WAR PRISONERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 November 1942, Page 3

WAR PRISONERS

TREATMENT IN GERMANY & ITALY NEW ZEALAND HOUSE REPORT. HOME LETTERS & PARCELS APPRECIATED. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 12. Prisoners in Italy state that New Zealanders are very grateful for parcels and letters from home. An Aucklander, Mr Trevor Johnson, a Y.M.C.A. field secretary, writing to Mr C. B. Burkekin, of New Zealand House, says: “There are 400 New Zealanders at Camp 65. Letters and parcels help to strengthen the chaps morally and physically. Unless anyone has been taken prisoner he cannot realise how gratefully parcels are appreciated.” Mr Burdekin, being dissatisfied with the receipt of addresses •of New Zealanders captured in Libya, circularised British camp leaders in Germany and Italy giving information of what they entitled to receive and suggesting that those who had not received such should send a postcard. As a result hundreds of postcards have arrived, including many new names. Mr Burdekin said today: “Bulk supplies of battle dress and boots forwarded to camps from the International Red Cross at Geneva for issue to New Zealanders have been mainly satisfactory. The Italians are supplying more boots and underclothing than the Germans. The Germans recently banned Australians and New Zealanders writing home aS a reprisal for the unsatisfactory delivery of German prisoners’ letters from Canada and Australia, for which there was some justification, in view of considerable delays, but it is understood that the bottleneck has been removed and the ban lifted. It probably resulted in gaps in letters to New Zealand. We have had no reports of any New Zealanders being chained.” RELIEF CARGOES LANDED AT SINGAPORE & HONG KONG. DISTRIBUTION ARRANGEMENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Prisoners of War Inquiry Office in Wellington has received cabled advice to the effect that an entire cargo of relief goods has been unloaded at Singapore and a thousand tons at Hong Kong, including 8,530 packages of medicines, which were in an Indian shipment. The International Red Cross delegate in Japan has requested that half of this shipment be sent to the Philippines. Relief in Hong Kong has been placed in the hands of the Japanese Army, who will distribute the goods in conjunction with the International Red Cross delegate. Some 13,526 packages of assorted foodstuffs and 724 cases of boots, all from the British Red Cross, have been landed at Yokohama for distribution to camps in Japan, Korea and Formosa. Consignments have also been landed from the American and Canadian Red Cross societies. The International Red Cross delegate, by cable, stressed the impossibility, in view of transport difficulties, of apportioning relief according to the nationalities from whom it was received and said he must distribute to prisoners of war and internees irrespective of the country from whence the goods were sent. A list containing approximately 1100 names of civilians who are reliably reported to have been in Malaya, Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies at the time of the capitulation of Singapore and Java has been received by the Prisoners of War Office. Copies are available for perusal by the public at the offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin and Red Cross branches. The office has received cabled advice from Geneva that prisoners in Italy will not in future be permitted to receive any shirts other than khakicoloured. This anplies even to naval and Air Force prisoners. Civilian shoes with rubber soles and indoor slippers may still be sent. Officially notified prisoners now number 7,927, with three notified unofficially.