PATRIOTIC PARCELS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 9 February 1944, Page 4

PATRIOTIC PARCELS

SERVICEMEN’S APPRECIATION LETTERS FROM NELSON OFFICERS Several letters expressing appreciation of Christmas parcels were received by the Nelson Provincial Patriotic Council last evening from New Zealand servicemen Overseas who had received patriotic parcels containing cards from Nelson donors. Among those who had received a parcel from the Nelson council were two local officers, Major H. F. Allan and Captain H. McKechnie, who are serving with the forces in. the Pacific. “It is lovely to know that the people back home are still thinking of us and, being a Nelsonian myself, I felt quite proud that so many parcels from you people should by some lucky chance get to my Company,” wrote Captain McKechnie. Although there could be no complaint about the regular food supplied on the islands, said Major Allan, the extras provided from* the parcels, such as coffee and milk, tinned fruit and cake were a very welcome change. THE PACIFIC VIEWPOINT “One feels a little diffident writing from the Pacific to acknowledge these gifts after the publicity given to the objections some, donors voiced,” wrote Major Allan. “Having imagined their parcels opened by the boys in the desert they were a little upset to find that they had reached ‘the play-boys of the Pacific.’ However the lads of this battalion have now accounted.for a few Japs and know what it means to lie at night, in the inky darkness of the jungle with the little yellow fellows crawling amongst them. Having cleared this island of Japs, they arc now keen to meet some more.”