COTTON PICKING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13335, 23 December 1943, Page 3

COTTON PICKING

ITALIAN PRISONERS’ STUDY

Florence,

Five thousand Italian prisoners of war at the nation’s largest internment camp are studying cottonpicking instructions, printed in their native language, preparatory to work in harvesting Arizona’s cotton crop, endangered by a grave labour shortage.

Already 500 fellow prisoners have proved in the past two weeks the feasibility of the plan to utilise them, Col. William A. Holden, commanding officer, said. The instructions, Colonel Holden explained, deal mainly with disproving a groundless fear among the prisoners connected with picking Egyptian, or long staple, cotton. The directions emphasise the importance of removing the cotton whole from the boll and other mechanics of cotton picking, an occupation foreign to mainland Italians. The one-time soldiers used experimentally at the first three site labour camps established in the United States for working prisoners of war have displayed, Colonel Holden said, that they are happy, hard-work-ing cotton pickers. Eight other labour camps will be established in central and southern Arizona for the additional prisoners made available through the assignment of more Array guards after an appeal to Under-secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson.

Cotton growers pay prevailing wages to the Government for the prisoners, who receive SO cents a clay under terms of the Geneva Convention. Long staple cotton, indispensable in the manufacture of parachute shrouds, is one of the State’s most important war products.