REPATRIATION OF PRISONERS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24536, 9 April 1945, Page 4

REPATRIATION OF PRISONERS

♦—• , MR FRASER INSPECTS N.Z. CENTRE TOUR OF MARfeATE AREA (Official News Service) LONDON. April 7,' “Everything that happened to us since we came into New- Zealand hands has been perfefct,”. Brigadier K, L. Stewart told the Prime Minister (the Rt Hon. P. Fraser) at the New Zealand Reception Group Headquarters, Westgate, Kent, to-day, on behalf m 40 liberated prisoners of war who had just arrived there from Germany. . Mr Fraser devoted the day to meeting these officers and men, and to making a thorough inspection of New Zealand establishments in the Margate area, including a hospital which is to be opened on Monday. After seeing the remarkable way in which the reception group!had overcome the difficulties of accommodation, labour, and materials, he said he was greatly impressed and pleased. In a brief address to the staff and liberated men, he expressed his satisfaction with the arrangements that had been made for* New Zealand’s returning prisoners of war. He told them that if there were anything further they needed, and it were obtainable, they should ask for it. because the Government was determined and the people of New Zealand were anxious that nothing should be left undone in the reception preparations. They wanted the returning men to feel that arriving on the Kentish coast was like arriving in part of the Dominion, added Mr Fraser, Repatriates’ Gratitude

Brigadier Stewart spoke for .the whole party, He said how agreeably surprised they had been to find that such thorough and excellent arrangements had been made by their own people to deceive them. It was a heartening experience to. haye come straight into New- Zealand hands, and there was nothing in the organisation with which to find fault, . The New Zealand High Commissioner in London (Mr W. J, Jordan), who visited the centre with Mr Fraser and Mrs Jordan, added his welcome to that of Mr Fraser, and paid tribute to organisations and persons who had contributed to the welfare of the men while they had been in German hands. Mr Jordan made special mention of Colonel B. Myers, of the Red Cross and St, John organisation, and Mr C. B Burdekin, and the staff of the New Zealand Prisoner of War Section in London. The visitors were, welcomed at the Reception Group Hepdquarters by the commanding officer, Major-General H. K Kippenberger. and Mrs Kippenberger, and the second-in-command,' Colonel L. F. Rudd. Mr Fraser was introduced individually to members of the staff and the liberated party. After lunching with them, he inspected the headquarters and the N.Z.Y.M.C.A, attached to it. Mr Fraser then visited the main Y.M.C.A, in an area which occupies the ground floor of one of the best hotels in the town. With a cafeteria, sunny balconies, lounges, and writing, reading, and lecture rooms, this is a very fine welfare centre. On the floors above it, is excellent accommodation for other ranks, These rooms and many more which Mr Fraser saw in other residential buildings in this pleasant seaside resort.' are -being cleaned, repainted, and furnished in readiness for the returning parties. Being mostly private hotels, they are well equipped with all normal facilities After seeing the stores building, the Prime Minister and his party visited the group’s new hospital in pretty, open country at Haine. Here a great deal of work in preparing the building has been done by the hospital staff. One doctor laughingly commented: “We now know more about plumbing than surgery.” After Mr Fraser had been shown many examples of ingenuity, including the entertainment hall where they had built a stage with odd bits of timber, supported bv three telephone poles cut into short lengths, he congratulated them, and told them he knew enough about the N.Z.E.F. medical services to be confident that the sick and wounded among the returning prisoners of war would receive the best possible attention.