PRISONERS OF WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 June 1943, Page 4

PRISONERS OF WAR

MAILS AND PARCELS WELLINGTON, June 11. The Prisoners of War Inquiry Office recently received interesting information regarding the small amount of pilferage in connection with parcels for prisoners of war. Examination has been made by British authorities of the slips foi- the period of six months, all known losses of parcels, which have been reported, being taken into account. Losses have been reported in respect to 47 parcels addressed to camps in Germany and 12 to Italy. During the same period, 45,000 next-of-kin parcels were despatched from 'England,, and the losses therefore represent only one in 766. It is recognised, however that losses may be slightly higher, as all are not reported There are only three known cases of loss at Stalag XVIII A during the period and no camp seems to have .had this proportion of losses, except possibly Stalag Luft 111., from which only seven cases were reported, and . six of these parcels may be redirected from another camp, and that might have some bearing on the loss. By the end of December, \1942, the Central Agency for prisoners of war, Geneva, had despatched 20,000,000 letters, the majority concerning prisoners of war and their families. Incoming mail totalled 90,000,000 communications. It may be noted by way of comparison that during the 1914-18, war letters received and despatched were only 8,000,000.