DIARY RETURNED AFTER 21 YEARS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29728, 23 January 1962, Page 15

DIARY RETURNED AFTER 21 YEARS

Posted From Crete For N.Z. Man

(N.Z. Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, Jan. 22. Twenty-one years after its owner was a prisoner of war in Crete, a lost diary has been returned to New Plymouth via Urenui.

The diary belongs to Mr A. G. C. Jones, of 202 Ngamotu road. New Plymouth, who now works in a cool store. In 1941, when he was captured, he was a driver with the New Zealand Army Service Corps The diary was not returned direct to Mr Jones, but to his wife, because the only clue to the missing owner was the address of Mrs Jones (Miss Willison in 1941). at Okoke. When he was captured Mr Jones lost most of his personal possessions. Late last year Mrs Jones received a letter from Crete addressed to Madame Willison. Okoke. It was from Sophia Mbotsoy. of Canae. Mrs Mbotsoy said she found the diary near the village of Galates. where she lived on a farm.

She had carefully preserved the diary during the war. but then forgotten it. When moving house last year to Canae it was rediscovered and she wrote to Mrs Jones. Within a few weeks of the correct ownership being established it was sent to New Plymouth by air mail.