Untitled

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 55, 3 September 1945, Page 6

under strict Army surveillance, the boxes in which it was contained were carried by only five Army lorries, and it was not until unusual post-war '"hush-hush" tactics were followed at Picton last Thursday that there was a suspicion that the Army convoy had a precious cargo—more important than secret files or equipment. The convoy of five lorries and a motor-car, assembled from many parts of the South Island, aroused curiosity. The so-long closely held secret began to leak out—or, at least, to be guessed at. Reports that on its way from Christchurch the convoy had trouble passing the Blue Slip suggested that the load was a heavy and valuable one, and the secrecy procedure on its arrival at Picton whetted curiosity. The convoy was placed in a barbedwire enclosure at the naval station on the foreshore. On Friday morning the trucks moved down to the wharf where H.M.S. Awatere was berthed, and observers saw between 200 and 300 boxes, each weighty, being run down a plank from the lorries into the minesweeper.