WHAT SOLDIERS LIKE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 192, 16 July 1941, Page 7

WHAT SOLDIERS LIKE.

DEMAND FOR PICKLES

"Do you know anyone who is able to pack pickles in sucii a. way that they would carry to the boys over there-'" was a query asked by Sergeant L. C. Morgan, of the 2nd i\.Z.E.l''., who has been invalided home and is now in Palmerston North. Sergeant Morgan stated that the parcels sent from New Zealand were particularly welcomed by the soldiers as they contained so many of the things dear to them. The food in the camps was all right, he stated, and there was always plenty of amusement. The men had been really well treated. "I would like to teil people, however," he' added, "not to send corned beef, jam, or (by special request) eggs. Some people have done that, you know. The things that I found most appreciated were tinned fruit, tinned meats (say tongues), shortbread, tins of coffee and milk, and New Zealand tobacco. You have no idea how tne New Zealand tobacco is apprecialeu. And pickles! If someone could only find a way to get them over, what a win it would be. These may sound little things, but they are big things to the boys. Another thing that will be appreciated is Knee-length socks (golf hose). Shorts are worn a good deal in the Middle East, and you look a bit ridiculous with only a pair of boots or boots and a pair of short socks. We received parcels regularly when in England, but it was a little more difficult in the Middle East, where we were changing round a lot. It took a Christmas cake nearly seven months to reach me." I

Sergeant Morgan added that he was in a base hospital in Egypt when the first lot of wounded men from Crete were brought in. Many had beards some were in pyjamas, others had Australian greatcoats which had been given them by Australians, and all were exhausted. There were long lines of stretcher eases and these wore handled with the utmost despatch. Everything was done to make tiic men comfortable. The Prime Minister (M. Fraser) and General Freyberg were at the door when many of the men were brought in, and for all they had a cheery word and afterwards toured the wards. Big lists Mere placed outside the hospitals showing the names of the patients and there was a steady stream of anxious inquirers looking for friends.

Sergeant Morgan related an experience which he and 50 others underwent while they were in England. They were about to board a train when the air-raid siren sounded: All (members of the armed forces were immediately ordered off the train and under the command of a British officer inarched to a shelter. A bomb struck the corner of the shelter and (everyone in it was "blasted" out into the road. He had experience also' of bombing at another point, on the coast, when planes swooped down on a party and he was thrown yards away by the blast from the bomb". It was the effect of the bombing that kept him out of the Greek and Cretan campaigns and caused him to be sent home.