Survey Being Made Of Former P.O.W.’s Health

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29051, 13 November 1959, Page 14

Survey Being Made Of Former P.O.W.’s Health

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, November 12. Statistics of the health records of former prisoners of war would enable the Ex-Prisoners of War Association to put an adequate case to the Government for the provision of relief and pensions for these men, said Mr J. A. Yule, of Carterton, the Dominion president of the association, today. “The association is endeavouring to compile statistics in an effort to prove that the present disabilities of New Zealand prisoners of war are due to the treatment they received in captivity,” he said. The full effects of malnutrition and ill-treatment were only now coming to light. The survey being undertaken was a largescale. one. Great difficulty was being experienced in providing adequately for these disabled men and their families because of the lack of foresight on the part of the Govt eminent of the day, said Mr Yule. No medical recorda of prisoners

of war had been compiled and the survey had not yet got very far. Much information had been received from overseas countries however. Some of the Australian figures were enlightening. These showed that, contrary to popular belief, prisoners of the Japanese were not suffering from ailments as severe as those from the European theatre. Of former prisoners of the Japanese treated in repatriation hospitals, 10.4 per cent, were found to be suffering from circulatory diseases brought on by malnutrition and ill-treatment, said Mr Yule. The figure for the European theatre was 13.2 per cent. A reverse tendency was shown with deaths. In a 1955 survey it was shown that circulatory diseases associated with prison camp life accounted for 23.1 per cent, of all Australian deaths in the 35-to-44 age group, which would include most prisoners held by the Japanese, and for 25.2 per cent, of all reported deaths of form** prisoners of the Japanese.