CONDITIONS FOR PRISONERS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23415, 23 August 1941, Page 3

CONDITIONS FOR PRISONERS

“MUCH BETTER THAN WAS ANTICIPATED”

“It is now possible to write and tell all who are waiting for something definite that, gathered from reliable sources, the news of comrades who are ‘missing, believed prisoners of war’ is much better than was anticipated,” says the “N.-Z.E.F. Times” of August 4. The paper is printed in Cairo. “War is a great breeder of rumours —and the uglier the rumour the more eagerly it is seized upon and promulgated. All sorts of wild rumours haye been sent back to Npw Zealand in letters. Most of these stories are the product of vivid imaginations. But it is now possible to form some definite idea of the whereabouts, the treatment, and the conditions of our comrades who are ‘missing.’ “We have been officially notified that many of our officer prisoners are in Germany. We know that there is a big prisoner of war camp at Camp Corinthid in Greece; and that there is a camp of another 1000 of our fellows in Crete. "All over Europe there is a shortage of food, judged by New Zealand standards. So it is quite obvious that prisoners will be getting the food that is available in the country where the prison camp is situated. And no European country has the standard to which we are accustomed. ‘The New Zealand Red Cross—working in., close co-operation with the British Red Cross and the International Red Cross—is sending through what parcels it can, but has also arranged for bulk supplies to go through to prison camps from this end. It Is possible to get food through to camps ?n Germany, via Canada, London, and Geneva. But transport difficulties prevent that food getting down the Danube, to Greece. Whatever ways open up from this end will be availed of to the full. “All relations of missing men chn be assured that everything possible is being done. So, when you write your next letter back home, make it a cheerful one. Even if by nature you cannot be cheerful, please don't fill your letter up with disquietening gossip and stupid rumours. “There is another phase which should be mentioned. In general New Zealanders are great letter writers. But it is quite evident that some men do not write home for months. Inquiries from anxious mothers as to the whereabouts of their boys—‘ls he missing in Greece or Crete?—sometimes disclose that the boy never left Egypt. Women in New Zealand are left waiting and wondering, and the source of the trouble is the laziness—and the cruelty—of a man who is too tired to write one page on the new ‘Air Mail Letter Card!’ or. too mean to spend the threepence on a stamp!"