CARGO AND MAIL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 3, 29 September 1943, Page 5

CARGO AND MAIL

Looking After 2nd N.Z.E.F.' Consignments N.Z.E.F. Official News Service. CAIRO, ISeptemlber 17. All cargo and mail arriving in the Middle (East for (New Zealand units passes through (the hands of a special all- . New Zealand; Port Detachment,. whose ’ task is to expedite delivery. ISince its . formation in August, 1041, this small de-,! tail has maintained a record of the high-'! est efficiency. (Early in 1941, when a'i great volume of supplies was ipouringl inlto the Middle East through the rela-j tively small number of ports then avail-1 able, delays in delivery of items of general l cargo were unavoidable. j A unit was accordingly formed! of our . men experienced in shipping matters. As I a result, losses in cargoes have fallen-; from 15 per cent, to under 1 per cent, of the totals shipped’. This is well under j the normal peacetime raltg of 2 to 3 per ' Cent. The detachment, which is self- 1 contained, examines all manifestoes, locates and supervises the unloading of all cargo consigned to New Zealand units,! and dispatches it to the final address. It j also guards all cargoes for which it is re-' sponsible, deals with personnel and .mail j arriving and departing from the Middle i East, and locates shipments over-carried 1 to other ports. ■ The detachment operates from an office ; in the 'Suez area, with living quarters in { a self-contained camp not far away. l When the Division moved west after Field-Marshal Rommel, details went to ; Benghazi and later to Tripoli. The work I there, in spite of enemy action, was maintained to standard. One of the jobs much appreciated by the men of the Division was the handling of the issue of patriotic parcels and tobacco at Tripoli. Attached personnel include postal people,’ guard details, and A.'S.C. drivers. The .'boarding launch used by the New Zealand detachment was once well known in Auckland as the Olive Jean, the North Shore ferry and haiibour excursion boat,! and has been carrying out her present duties for IS months. Her new name, appropriately, is New Zealand. She flies the Dominion ensign, and has an all-New Zealand crew. New Zealand II was an “enemy alien,” salvaged by a second detachment from the ibeaeh at Tripoli. After extensive repairs, she was equipped with a truck engine and proved of great service in working the battered port. The work of the detachment is sometimes most complex, such as finding perhaps one case among 10,000 tons of cargo. Occasionally small consignments are over-carried and finally unloaded at remote ports, where they would 'be lost but for the efforts of the organisation. Such cases have taken our shipping men as far afield as Haifa.