TRANSPORT WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25049, 13 November 1944, Page 7

TRANSPORT WORK

DIVISION'S EFFICIENCY HARD WORK IN MOUNTAINS The New Zealand Division fully kept up its reputation for efficiency in motor transport after the move from North Africa to completely different conditions in Italy, said Warrant-Officer (II.) V. J. Cleave, M.M., of' Parnell, who returned to Auckland with Saturday's draft of sick and wounded. WarrantOfficer Cleave left New Zealand with the First Echelon and was with Army Service Corps transport through all the division's campaigns until the conquest of Tunisia. He was awarded the .Military .Modal for bravery in repairing a motor-vehicle under fire at Minqar Qu'aiut in the retreat to the El Alamein line. Me returned with the main furlough draft last year and later was sent In Italy, where lie had about eight months' service until he was invalided home after the division had passed Florence. The Eighth Army in the mountains had a much more difficult task in maintaining supply than the Fifth Army, which went, north over coastal plains and on good roads, said Warrant-Officer Cleave. The division's original base was at Bari. and when he arrived, after the fall of Cassirio, there was only limited rail communication above Naples for the Eighth Army s use. At that time the division was out of the line and engaged in repairing roads and moving supplies up from the Naples railhead to the front. This was done effectively under handicaps. The Germans had made a very thorough job of demolitions, and there were many traffic bottlenecks, nil trying to the patience of men who had been used to driving at large over the desert. New Zealand repair depots

along the roads were called upon to doctor all kinds of vehicles as well as their own. As in North Africa, the New Zealanders were regarded as exceptionally skilled in maintaining motor transport. It was no exaggeration to say that they were on the average more mechanically-minded than any other troops engaged in Italy. Discipline also helped, for drivers were expected to, and did, do all necessary work on their vehicles at the end of the day. CONTROL OF PRICES CONTINUANCE AFTER WAR LONDON, Nov. 3 The Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade, Mr K. Waterhouse, in a speech at Birmingham said that price control would have to be continued for some time after the war. The greatest enemy of trade and industry and the destroyer of thrift was inflation, he said. While scarcity remained price control would have to be maintained for the benefit of the customer and the producer. After the war British industry would have an unprecedented opportunity to expand its export trade, but if prices at home were not controlled there would he an irresistible temptation to sell too much on the home market and send too little overseas, said Mr Waterhouse. He repeated the Government assurance that firms closed down for war purposes would get into production again before newcomers entered the field. BOY BIRD-NESTER KILLED SYDNEY, Nov. 3 A Sydney boy. William Garner, aged 10, was killed while he was bird-nesting at Guildford, lie carne in contact with the overhead electric railway wire. The current was cut off while the stationmaster and ambulance officers removed the hoy from the wires. He was placed in the iron lung at I'arramatta Hospital, but failed to respond.