BOGUS HOSPITAL SHIP

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24640, 9 August 1945, Page 5

BOGUS HOSPITAL SHIP

SEIZURE BY U.S. FORCES MUCH CONTRABAND FOUND (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 7. “A prize crew has brought to port a stinking, crowded Japanese hospital ship which was intercepted by ah Allied boarding party in the Banda Sea," says a correspondent of the Associated Press. ‘The ship had giant crucifixes towering aloft, and her holds were bulging with weapons of war and ammunition. “The vessel—the Tachibana Maru, of 1700 ions, is undoubtedly the filthiest ship yet to fall into American hands. A medical officer estimated that threequarters of the 1562 patients could be restored to combat duty after a brief fresh-air treatment. None had battle wounds, and only a few were really ill. Most of them trotted down the gangway, grinning broadly. "The ship had been observed operating in the-Indies area for a long time, removing men from Kai Island to Surabaya, in Java. "The Americans found a box of 88 millimetre shells wrapped in matting with a red cross painted on the outside. The Japanese captain was very red-faced and ill at ease when he was told that contraband had been found. He said he did not know who was responsible. “Other contraband found included rifles, machine-guns, and grenades. One box of the latter bore German labels.” FORMER N.Z. WAR PRISONERS

ONLY 800 STILL-IN ENGLAND

WINGS OF REPATRIATION CENTRE CLOSING

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 8. By the end of this week only 800 members of the N.Z.E.F. who are former prisoners of war will remain in England. Others will leave later in the month, and it is expected that the remainder will leave for New Zealand during the first half of September. By next week several units of the repatriation centre in Kent will have closed down. They include the following wings; “Freyberg,” at Folkestone; “Hargest” and “Crump," at Broadstairs; “Miles,” at Birchington; and “Barrowclough,” at Margate. All but about 150 former R.N.Z.A.F. prisoners have left Brighton for home. Brighton is also the centre for members of the R.N.Z.A.F. who are returning after completing their term of service in the European theatre. Since February 770 men have left England for New Zealand, and a further 400 are now waiting at Brighton for a ship. New Zealand naval officers and ratings have been returning home on foreign service leave during the last six months at the rate of 80 a month.

SOME MEN WALK OFF TROOPSHIP

(Rec. 11.45 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 8. Between 50 and 60 New Zealanders, formerly prisoners of war, are reported to have walked off a troopship in Liverpool when they saw the sleeping accommodation provided for their voyage to the Dominion. They objected to crowded quarters with only a few inches allowed each man to sling his hammock, and remarked that in spite of the cold day the atmosphere was stifling. They agreed that the ship was clean and the food good, and observed that the officers’ conditions were first class,'