INVALID SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 141, 11 March 1943, Page 3

INVALID SOLDIERS

300 Back From Middle East

A party of 300 invalid New Zealand soldiers from the Middle East have arrived at Wellington. They were officially welcomed at the clearing station. Though many of the men took part in the fighting at El Alamein, few of them, if any, have been further West than Marble. Arch. They freely express regret that after bearing the hardships of desert warfare they have not been able to" see the more pleasant country of Tripoli into which the United Nations forces have since penetrated. The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, welcomed the men to their homeland, saying that their fellow citizens' thanks for what; they had done for their country and for humanity could never be adequately expressed. He urged them to see that when they were before the medical board a complete record of their condition was made. That was for their own benefit and it might save them worry and misery in later years. Mr. Forbes, M.P., spoke on behalf of the Opposition, saying that in the matter of the welfare of returned soldiers there was no Government and no Opposition.

Other speakers were the president of the -New Zealand Returned Services Association, Mr. Perry, M.L.C., Colonel Baker, who was Colonel Love’s successor as commander of the Maori Battalion and who himself returned to New Zealand only a few weeks ago, Colonel J. 11. Whyte, who was in charge of the invalids, and representatives of local bodies and of the captain of the ship that brought the men back.