NEW ZEALANDERS WITH UNRRA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25135, 17 March 1947, Page 2

NEW ZEALANDERS WITH UNRRA

IMPRESSIONS OF WORK • IN CHINA (P.A.) AUCKLAND. March 14. Although they would not comment on the political aspect of the conflict, two New Zealanders who returned to Auckland by flying-boat after service with UNRRA in China, indicated that the extent of the hostilities is on a greater scale than is appreciated in the Dominion. The New Zealanders were Mr W. A. Robertson, of Wellington, a member of the staff of the Hutt railway workshops, who has been on loan to UNRRA as a locomotive inspector, and Miss S. A. McLaren, of Wellington, who is the first of a party of New Zealand stenographers in the UNRRA China office to return to the Dominion. “There is a terrific amount of work to be done,” said Mr Robertson, “but the political situation is affecting Yts progress.” As a locomotive inspector with the Shanghai-Nanking-Hanchow railway, Mr Robertson was stationed at the main workshops at Tsi-Shuyen. where he inspected and taught students for administrative posts. The students were of high calibre, having come to the workshops with degrees in science and engineering. Miss McLaren, who h#s been absent from the Dominion since last May, served in North China, she stated. For three months last year,'while she was in the town of Taiyuan, the Communist army was about seven miles away.