PRISONERS OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 89, 11 October 1941, Page 11

PRISONERS OF WAR

DISPATCH OF PARCELS

MACHINERY IN OPERATION

SYSTEM DESCRIBED

With the establishment of offices in the main centres, machinery designed to ensure that New Zealanders who are prisoners of war in Germany will receive their share of parcels is now in full operation. In each centre there is a Prisoners of War Inquiry Office attached to the New Zealand Red Cross and Order of St. John organisation, and this attends to the interests of prisoners in the matter of parcels. The latest show that 2398 New Zealanders have been notified as prisoners of war.

Arrangements have been made by this office for food parcels to be sent by the Canadian Red Cross for a period of three or four months to New Zealanders until the food parcels packed in New Zealand can be expected to arrive at the prison • camps. Funds have already been cabled to the Canadian Red Cross, the cost of the parcels, excluding freight and insurance, being about 15s to 16s in New Zealand currency. /' • These food parcels cannot be sent direct to any individual prisoner of war. They go into a pool of the New Zealand Red Cross at Geneva, and the International Red Cross sends them forward weekly. It is assumed that a. proportion of the New Zealand parcels will eventually reach New Zealanders. In any case, instructions have been given to the Canadian Red Cross to place a card inside each food parcel stating that it has been contributed from New Zealand. Advice was received from Canada to- i day that the shipping of parcels had ! started this week. j So far as parcels in New Zealand I are concerned, the Red Cross and St. John organisation here, in conjunction with the National Patriotic Fund Board, has already purchased food that will be delivered in Wellington in the next few days. This consists of tinned goods—butter, cheese, coffee and milk, honey, jam, meat, and vegetables. These will be packed by voluntary workers in Wellington, arid arrangements will be made to send 3000 parcels each week. GOODS SENT TO CANADA. Already on their way to Canada for repacking are the following: 21,000 tins of meat, 21,000 tins of butter, 21,000 tins of jam, 11,000 tins of coffee and milk, and one ton of chocolate in halfpound bars. The food parcels packed in Canada weigh 111b when ready for dispatch, and each contains lib of butter, jam, biscuits, whole-milk powder, Boz of salmon, dried apples, prunes, sugar, and eating chocolate, 12oz of corned beef, lOoz of pork and luncheon meat, 4oz each of cheese, sardines, or kip- * pers, tea, salt, pepper, and soap, and seven vitamin tablets. Evidence to hand indicates that from the end of July parcels have been ar- ] ' riving regularly. Arrangements have I been made to forward such things as i games and books from England. Next-of-kin of prisoners of war are not allowed to send food, and no parcel will be accepted by the Post Office unless it has an official Red Cross label, one of which is sent to each family, along with instructions as to '.what to send and what not to send. This work is all done by the Inquiry Office, which has a list of all the notified prisoners of war and their location. These next-of-kin parcels can be sent oniy once a quarter, arid when a soldier receives one he signs an. enclosed acknowledgment card, which is returned to New Zealand. ARRIVAL OF PARCELS. Complaints have been made that parcels are not reaching the prisoners j of war. In this connection the British | Red Cross Prisoners of War Depart-! merit announces that during the period July 1 to 15 acknowledgments from; prison camps were received for 715,868 j food parcels, 3120 tobacco parcels, and 25 medical parcels.' Dispatched from! Geneva in this period were 102,304 food parcels, plus 18,436 food parcels from Canada, 5974 tobacco parcels, and 030 medical parcels. Remaining on hand in Geneva* were 371,417 food parcels, 33,663 tobacco parcels, and 20,130 medical parcels. The following extract from a letter written by.a British prisoner from a German prison camp, dated April 22, is of interest: —"I am sending you a few figures of. parcels received for our stalag. "I can vouch for these figures, as all parcels pass through my hands. Approximately 80,000 general food parcels arid 15,000 personal, clothing, and games have arrived to date. Taking us as 8000 men, I consider this a fair share." ; CIGARETTES AND TOBACCO. A cable just received from the authorities in Britain advises that large supplies of cigarettes and tobacco are stored at Geneva, from which British prisoners, including New Zealanders, receive a weekly issue. Arrangements are well in hand here to forward all cigarettes and tobacco from New Zealand to New Zealand prisoners, and endeavours will be made to ensure that New Zealanders will receive New. Zealand brands.