PRISONER IN POLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23966, 16 May 1941, Page 5

PRISONER IN POLAND

SEAMAN FROM HAWKE'S BAY SERVING ON SAILING SHIP (0.C.) GISBORN'E, Thursday Forwarded through the international organisation for the aid of prisoners of war, a letter has been received in Gisborne from Richard Foxley, youngest son of Mr. P. Foxley, of Matawai, who was taken prisoner from a Finnish sailing vessel in the Atlantic last; year. The writer, who is now 17 years of age, signed on with a firm operating large grain-carrying sailing ships between Australia and Britain.

Foxley joined One of the company's vessels at a South Australian port early in 1939, and made one voyage home via Cape Horn. Later the ship was sent to the River Plate, where it took on a cargo before setting out for the Azores. For three months nothing was heard of the vessel, and finally news was received that the ship had been sunk by a Gerrnan raider and that the complement was taken to a French port and made prisoners of war. The latest advice received from Foxlev is that he is in a prison camp in Poland and is engaged chiefly in road work. He writes cheerfully, although with chagrin at being held prisoner, and expresses more concern for his two brothers than for himself. One brother is serving vitli the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East and the other is awaiting a call tor service with the Fleet Air Arm. Mr. P. Foxley, father of the young prisoner of war, is serving in a New Zealand mobilisation camp as a commissioned instructor.