GLOVES FOR WORK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 3

GLOVES FOR WORK

JAPANESE PRISONERS

MINISTER TELLS WHY P.A. WELLINGTON, this day. The acting Prime Minister, Mr. Nash, referred last night to reports published regarding the use of gloves by Japanese prisoners of war while at work, to the supply of morning and afternoon tea to them and to allegations of fraternisation between guards and prisoners. "In the first place," said Mr. Nash, "it should be made clear that New Zealand follows the provisions of the Geneva Convention in the treatment of prisoners of war and Article 12 of the convention provides, inter alia, that prisoners employed as workers shall receive working kit wherever the nature of the work requires it. "The Japanese prisoners at the Featherston camp are employed in the manual handling of heavy concrete blocks of the type used on roads and in other heavy work for which protective clothing for the hands is customary and a request that this protective clothing be provided was made by the delegate in New Zealand of the International Red Cross Committee. Some of the gloves being used are leather gloves, but the majority have been made by the prisoners themselves from heavy canvas material salvaged from discarded Army kit bags.

"Morning and afternoon tea, which working parties of prisoners are receiving, introduced as a winter measure on the representations of the International Red Cross Committee's delegate, is drawn from the prisoners' daily rations, which are in accordance with the convention, and is provided by the prisoners' own cooks. It is not an extra."

Mr. Nash concluded by saying that statements of fraternisation between the prisoners and their guards were being investigated.