WORRIED SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 125, 22 February 1944, Page 5

WORRIED SOLDIER

Not Enough Japanese

N.Z.E.F. Official News Service. N.Z. PACIFIC IHEAIDQUiAIRTEBS, February 21.

On a troopship approaching Nissan the night before the invasion, a solemn New Zealand soldier lefins pensively against the ship’s rail. “I ask him,” says a marine combat correspondent, “if he was worried.” “Yes, Yank,” replied the Kiwi. “You see, I have a fl bet that I get more Japs tomorrow than I ever got Germans. One day in the Middle East I got 11 Nazis. Now I am afraid that there won’t be enough Nips round. I don’t want to lose that quid.” On another part of the ship, a Kiwi and a United States Navy officer arc engaged in a quiet and- 'friendly bargaining over the exchange of currency. Said the American: “I don’t care what the hell a florin is. I won’t give more than a quarter for it.” The Kiwi corporal, mopping perspiration with his handkerchief, declares that he will settle for a bottle of beer, “Just one bottle—cold. When I get home I’m going to lie under a beer spigot and take it pouring in all day.”