NO FREE ISSUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1943, Page 4

NO FREE ISSUE

OF DISTINGUISHING PATCH FOR TROOPS ON PACIFIC SERVICE PURCHASE TO BE PERMITTED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Authority for wearing the distinguishing “New Zealand” shoulder patch by personnel of the Third Division of the N.Z.E.F. in the Pacific is contained in an Army instruction promulgated this week. The patch will be similar in design to that authorised for the personnel of the N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East and United Kingdom, except that it will consist of black letters on a khaki background. The familiar patches worn by men back from the Middle East carry white letters on a black background. The wearing of the new patches is confined to personnel who have been posted to and served with a unit of the Third Division in the Pacific. Temporary service with the Division, such as attachments or visits, will not qualify the persons concerned to wear the patch, and personnel of hospital ship staffs on transports and liaison staffs will wear the patch only while engaged on such duties. The patch will not be an Army issue in New Zealand and personnel desiring to purchase the patches will make written application to the Director of Base Records for authority to purchase.