PRISONERS OF JAPANESE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 July 1943, Page 5

PRISONERS OF JAPANESE

IMPROVEMENT IN CAMP CONDITIONS Wellington, This Day. Improvements 6f conditions in Japanese prisoners-of-war camps generally is indicated by cabled reports which the Prisoners of War Inquiry Office, Wellington, has received on visits by observers to the camps. In the Hong Kong camps more rations and weekly parcels are being received and officers are receiving pay which enables them to supplement their rations. At Osaka gramophones, records, pingpong sets and footballs have been purchased with money from the Pope’s relief fund, and nearly 4000 pairs of shoes have been supplied by the Army. Labour is compulsory for privates and n.c.o.’s eight hours a day except Sunday, the pay being 10 to 35 sen a day. A report on Camp Übe states that treatment, morale and discipline are good. In the Philippines camps prisoners’ health and discipline were reported in March to be improving. The health of prisoners at the Mukden camp has improved generally, and canteens have been established in the Java camps. Civil internees in Japan are allowed to send one letter in English, containing not more than 100 words a month or two letters in Japanese a week. In March a large quantity of books, musical instruments, sports requisites and games were purchased for the camps in Japan by a committee consisting of the minister and members of the Swedish Legation and the International Red Cross delegate. The delegate advised that he was negotiating for educational facilities in the camps.—P.A.