ALL CLOSED NOW

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21946, 14 February 1946, Page 8

ALL CLOSED NOW

N.Z. CLUBS IN ITALY TRIBUTE TO NURSES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 13. All the New Zealand clubs in Italy have been closed and also the New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo, according to the latest report received by the National Patriotic Fund Board from the Commissioner in the Middle East, Colonel F. Waite. , The work in December included equipping the brigade group for J Force and Coloned Waite now expects to be able to leave early this month on his return to the Dominion. Apart from what was needed for the men for Japan, all equipment is being sold in Italy. The Lowry Hut at the advanced base would be the last to close. There were still New Zealand patients in the 63rd British Hospital in Cairo, and the 78th British Hospital, Ismailia, and Mrs. R. Blackford, the official New Zealand Red Cross visitor, had returned to Egypt and taken up her visits to the hospitals again. The New Zealand nurses left to look after these men. Colonel Waite reported, were serving nobly to the very end under trying conditions. “The departure of the Maunganui should see the end of our Red Cross work in Egypt,” said Colonel Waite. “No troops have been looked after like ours. The medical, surgical and nursing services have been of the highest standard and through our visiting system all Kiwis have been given the extra amenities and sympathetic word which the generous people of New Zealand desired them to have.”