ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1943, Page 4

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE MINISTER FLIGHT IN LIBERATOR BOMBER. DELIGHTED WITH EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, May 17. Twenty-two hours after leaving Cairo, the New Zealand Defence Minister, Mr F. Jones, arrived in England. He and Mr Sherwood, his secretary, flew in a Liberator bomber, which made one landing during the flight when it stayed three hours at Algiers. There are no seats in a Liberator, so the Minister flew under service conditions and slept occasionally on matresses. Mr Jones commented : “We were reasonably comfortable and I certainly have- had worse trips.” He was delighted with his experiences when visiting the N.Z.E.F. He found the men "very tired but cheerful.” The Minister expressed an opinion that the soldiers appreciated the Government sending someone to visit them in the forward area. Mr Jones stated that he had most helpful talks with General Freyberg, whom he had not seen since General Freyberg left New Zealand with the N.Z.E.F. Mr Jones was much impressed by the “wonderful organisation” built up in connection with the division, and praised particularly the medical work of Dr McCormick, also the work of Dr Kendrick. Mr Jones added that there were many little heard of units doing good work—for instance a port detachment unit at Suez, which was responsible for reducing the pilfering of goods sent from New Zealand from 15 to 1 per cent. The same applied to a unit at Tripoli. Mr Jones said: “Everywhere I went I heard the warmest tributes by our men to the work of the R.A.F., of which they could not speak too highly. We once saw 600 sorties pass over headquarters in one morning, and, as our boys said, ‘They are all our own brand’.” Since returning to London, Mr Jones has met Messrs Attlee and Bevin, who were very interested to hear of his experiences.