SYDNEY PARTY JOIN VESSEL

Evening Star, Issue 25617, 18 October 1945, Page 4

SYDNEY PARTY JOIN VESSEL

MALAYA PRISONERS AND INTERNEES SYDNEY, October 17. A party of about 75 New Zealanders who have been prisoners of war and internees in Japan and Malaya, and have been waiting in Sydney for some time for transportation to New Zealand, were placed on a troop train by the New Zealand Army liaison officer, Lieutenant-colonel Mothes, at midnight. They are bound for Melbourne, where they will join the liner Andes for New Zealand. Two carriages were placed at the disposal of the New Zealanders, and the Australian Red Cross authorities supplied each traveller with two blankets and a pillow to help them on their journey, which will take about 22 hours. Red Cross representatives will also meet the train at various stopping places, en route to see if any further assistance can be rendered to the New Zealand party.

The New Zealanders' comfort was a rather strange contrast to that of the other travellers, who. had to make their own arrangements for comforts. The naval railway transport office also did everything possible to assist the New Zealanders, and assistance will be provided for them at Albury, where they have to change from the New South Wales train to a Victorian train. The party will arrive at Melbourne at 9 o'clock to-night and will go straight on board the Andes. Lieutenant-colonel Moihes said it was a very happy moment ior him, when the train pulled out, to see the bright, happy faces of his party and the comfortable conditions under which they would undertake the trying journey. Among those on the Indes will be Sister Nora Edwards, o: Whangarei, who came from Japan 01 the hospital ship Oxfordshire, and has been a patient in a naval hospital since her arrival in Sydney. She left for Melbourne on an earlier tran in the care of a special nurse.