INFORMATION FOR SOLDIERS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23415, 23 August 1941, Page 10

INFORMATION FOR SOLDIERS

♦ PRISONERS’ SERVICE

COMMISSIONER’S REPORT

(P.R.) WELLINGTON, August 22,

The New Zealand Red Cross Information Bureau, installed at the British Red Cross Prisoners of War Office, has given great service, and has speeded up the clarification of International Red Cross notifications, states Lieuten-ant-Colonel F. Waite, the Overseas Commissioner for the National Patriotic Fund Board, in a report to the board dealing with the question of getting food to New Zealanders who were taken prisoner in Greece and Crete.

Colonel Waite, who worked in close association with Sir Duncan MacKenzie (Commissioner for the British Red Cross and Order of St. John in the Middle East) states that as the, weekly quota of standard individual parcels was low and a report was received from London that the need of food in Greece was great, they opened negotiations with a view to arranging for bulk supplies to be sent for prisoners of war from stocks available in the Middle East. They had since had an assurance that 20 tons of bulk goods a' week would go. Further particulars concerning the publication of the “N.Z.E.F. Times." the newspaper which has been established for the benefit of New Zealand forces in the Middle East is given. The newspaper has proved a valued amenity. The staff of the paper is provided by the Public Relations Office, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. An article on the patriotic fund activities is supplied each week by Colonel Waite who also writes an editorial. He says that 10,000 copies are printed weekly and distributed free. To assist in the establishment costs, he gave a guarantee cf £2O (Egyptian) an issue for the first four issues, the venture to be reviewed at the end of three months, the idea being that as many advertisements are to be obtained as possible. All the cash, Colonel Waite states, is paid into the base paymaster and the Government Auditor will audit the accounts.