NEW ZEALAND TROOPS.

Mt Benger Mail, 28 May 1919, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS.

MEN DEMOBILISED. XUMBERS IN FRANCE AND BRITAIN. Sir James Allen in the course of an interview with a Daily Times reporter, stated that 26,497 men had been evacuated from England since the armistice was signed. Following are the deails of the strength of the New Zealand Forces still in France and the United Kingdom : In France 94 In United Kingdom .... 15,183 In Hospital in United Kingdom 1,797 Married men with wives in the United Kingdom .. 1,253 Nurses and Red Cross workers to be evacuated ... . 185 These figures show a total of 21,512. Sir James explained that the men in France were remaining there to look after the equipment. General Richardson rad stated that every member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces should be oq the water by September, but he thought that unless unforseen shipping difficulties arose greater progress than that even wou'd be made uith the work of evacuation. With regard to the men in Egypt, there were still a few sick and wounded men there, but he hoped to have nearly a thousand men embarked from there in June. There were greater difficulties in getting the men away from Egypt than from the United Kingdom owing to the scarcity of shipping to the dom*nion via and from Suez at the present time. When speaking at Milton later, on the occasion of the presentation of the D.C.M. to Private J. L. Keogh, Sir James said that the lack of shipping and the unrest which existed in Egypt accounted for the delay in having men returned from that quarter. He mentioned that some Australians had lost their lives in the recent trouble th9re, and he was quite sure that the .people of New Zealand although pleased to see all their boys home, were quite willing to have them remain until the trouble had been definitely settled, so that they might stand by their Australian comrades.