TROOPS HOME

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24134, 28 November 1941, Page 6

TROOPS HOME

MIDDLE EAST PARTY SERGEANT FROM CITY MOTHERLESS CHILDREN A party of Expeditionary Force soldiers who are stated to have been given leave to attend to urgent private affairs has arrived from the Middle East. They include Sergeant W r . Hanley, of 11 Wellington Street, whose three young children were left without a guardian to care for them whert his wife died in September. As a result of steps take,n by Captain W. V. Quane, sick and wounded officer for the Northern Military District, the children were found satisfactory temporary quarters and a request was made to the -Government for Sergeant Hanley to be granted leave to arrange for his children's welfare. After a first refusal the Government took steps to ask Middle East Headquarters to grant the requisite leave. The children are at present .staying in two private homes, two boys being looked after in one home and a girl in another. Other soldiers who returned were:— Major P. N. Cryer (Wellington), Captain 0. J. Hutchison (Hokitika), Captain .0. Jones (Rotorua), Lieutenant T. A. Mead (Blenheim), Second-Lieu-tenant A. A. E. Broad (West port), Second-Lieutenant A. G. M. Holmes (Hawke's Bay), Cadet-Officer M. B, Dawson (Wellington), Sergeant-Major T. Whalle.v (Petone), Corporal E. B. Topp (Wellington), Lance-Corporal R. S. Dixon (Geraldine), Lance-Corporal P. L. Hansen (Waimate), Lance-Cor-poral W. J. White (Invercargill), Gunner C. T. Climie (Christchurch), Privates W. P. Blewitt, G.= Curnmings (Christchurch), J. E. Herlihy (Porirua), R. Howarth (Auckland), E. Pitman (Whangarei), A. J. Ryan (Hastings), A. J. Hasleniore (Itiverton). On arrival the soldiers were met by officers of the sick and wounded branch and were medically boarded and X-rayed. Those for the south were attended to as quickly as possible to enable them to catch travel connections and they were able to leave last night.