WARM THANKS

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

WARM THANKS

AUSTRALIANS ENTERTAINED

A warm expression of gratitude for the hospitality experienced by servicemen in Wellington is expressed in a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel McCarter, officer commanding a draft of Australian ex-prisoners of war who were recently on leave in the city. "After four years and more ot German and Italian prison life," he writes, "it deeply touched all of us to be permitted to enter the family circle and fireside of a New Zealand home, which as we expected we found to be so like our own. We all know the immense amount of work involved by the introduction of even one guest into the average home in wartime. We are deeply aware of what it means to be host to nearly one thousand men in batches. We appreciate the generous use made of your citizens' cars, both from and to the wharf after leave. "May I thank you personally for the herculean task you performed in organising at such short notice the reception of 900 of our men into private homes. Thanks to your able staff work and tireless energy the apparently impossible was performed, and the men were put in touch with their hosts in a very short space of time. "I shall be very glad if you could convey to all concerned our gratitude." .