RELIEF FOR GREECE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 148, 20 December 1945, Page 4

RELIEF FOR GREECE

CORSO TEAMS ASSEMBLED

When the Mooltan leaves Wellington on Sunday next she will be taking away just under 30 New Zealanders who are going to Greece as volunteer relief workers. They will wear battledress, with a shoulder flash that will be new to most people here. It carries the letters U.N.R.R.A. in white on a bright red background. These workers, in four teams—two public health teams, one mobile laboratory team, and one relief refugee team —have been recruited by COKSO. Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas, and they will work in Greece under the general direction of UNRRA. Volunteers from Great Britain, America, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, are already in Greece.

"The departure of the teams is evidence that New Zealanders, whose standard of living has by comparison suffered very little, are not forgetful that people the other side of the world are in a desperate condition." said a representative of CORSO this morning. "According to reports from recent visitors Greece is feeling the aftermath of the war as much as any country in Europe. Poverty, malnutrition, and sickness are still very general. Especially at this time of the year it is good to feel that we are making a contribution to the alleviation of distress in Europe." UNRRA and the Greek people both asked for New Zealand workers. The Greeks themselves, indeed, have a warm regard for New Zealanders. CORSO invited applications, and from some hundreds of replies, selected the four teams. To assist in the final selection, Miss Constance Duncan, chief welfare officer of UNRRA in the Southwest Pacific Area, recently visited New Zealand. The people who are going to Greece include doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, laboratory workers, welfare workers proper, stores experts, a dietitian, and an interpreter. One young man is a former member of the 2nd New Zealand Division, whose life was saved off Crete by a party of Greek fishermen. Another ex-Kiwi was a long time on Crete in hiding before he got away. An official farewell to the teams will be held in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall' 1 tomorrow, at 12.30 p.m. There will be brief speeches by representative speakers, and members of the public will have an opportunity to wish them good-bye and bon voyage.