JAP. PRISONERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 26, 29 December 1945, Page 4

JAP. PRISONERS

MESSAGE TO GOVERNMENT

TREATMENT appreciated CP A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 28. ‘‘vVe’re going back to Japan as ambassadors tor New Zealand,” says a letter Japanese prisoners °f war at heatherston have sent to the JNew Zealand Red Cross. A similar message has been addressed to the New Zealand Government, in which the prisoners, now that they are soon to depart have expressed appreciation of the hrendly treatment they have received during" their three-year stay in New Z< Many of the 800 who are to return in two American L.S.T s now at \\ ellington have become Christians during their imprisonment at Featherston. Thev have declared that they will take their Christian faith back to their neople at home. They came as enemies, but many will go away as tr Between £2OO and £3OO worth of stores have been bought by the Red Cross from the Canteen Funds Board for distribution among the Japanese when they set out on their journey and when they arrive in Japan, ihe Dominion secretary of the Red Cross Society (Mr M. S. .Galloway) in giving these details, in answer to inquiries said that books and magazines would be handed .to the Japanese on the ships. They would also receive from the Red Cross a supply of cigarettes and tobacco and a special supplement of food. A food parcel would be given to each prisoner when he arrived in J apan 'to provide him with something extra for the first day or two his return home. In their study classes the prisoners had made very good progress in reading English, Mr Galloway said, and books and magazines in English could therefore be supplied to them, ihe Red Cross had always' answered prisoners’ requests during their stay. Cigarettes -and tobacco were supplied, especially to Japanese who went into hospital, and letters of thanks for these .were afterwards received from the prisoners. , , , “They must be quite the best-treat-ed prisoners of war you' could find anywhere,” Mr Galloway said. “I saw them when they came to New Zealand and have observed them right through. The improvement in their physique is wonderful. We have fulfilled our obligations under the Geneva Convention. What we have done will have been reported back to Japan through the International Red Cross and it must incidentally have had some effect on the treatment of New Zealand prisoners in Japan. It should not be imagined that all prisoners in the hands of the Japanese were illtreated. We have reports that the attitude of Japanese civilians towards prisoners in their country was very favourable.” The conversion of many Japanese to the Christian faith, Mr Galloway said he regarded as an important step towards a better understanding between the two peoples.