CAREFULLY HANDLED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 152, 29 June 1944, Page 4

CAREFULLY HANDLED

DISEMBARKING AMPUTEES AUCKLAND CHARGE DENIED (0.C.) WANGANUI, this day. "The statement from Auckland that war amputees who returned to New Zealand on a hospital ship recently had to hop from the vessel to the wharf because crutches had not been provided is untrue, and on behalf of the men who returned, and in fairness to the organisations which cared for us on our arrival, I wish to deny it," declared Corporal J Wilkinson, of Wanganui, who returned on the hospital ship in question- , Corporal Wilkinson expressed amazement at the reported protest made by officials of the Auckland V/ar Amputees' Association about the lack of thought and organisation on the arrival or the vessel. "Admittedly there was a shortage of crutches on the wnarf, but all men who required them were taken off as stretcher cases, and there were no occasions when men had to hop down the gangway. I would be unfair to let such a statement by this association go unchallenged, in view of the consideration and careful handling which amputees and other invalided men received on disembarkation."