SOLDIER CASUALTIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24827, 29 January 1942, Page 4

SOLDIER CASUALTIES

CABLED INQUIRIES NEW SYSTEM DEVISED (P.A ) WELLINGTON, Jan. 28. For the purpose of relieving useless congestion on the cable services, the Government has decided to refer to Base Records all private.cable inquiries made to General Headquarters of the 2nd N.Z.'E.F. , „ _ The Minister of Defence, Mr F. Jones, said to-day that the Government's aim in doing this was threefold—to ensure that only information which was official and authentic was disseminated, to ensure that such information was sent out without delay, and to obviate the expense of private cablegrams and congestion of the cable system. Mr Jones said it had been brought to his notice that a large number of private cable messages inquiring for particulars of casualties were being sent from New Zealand, addressed either to individuals in the 2nd N.Z.E.F. or to 2nd N.Z.E.F. Headquarters. The Minister pointed out that private cable messages addressed to individual soldiers overseas, inquiring for particulars of casualties, could not properly be answered overseas because it had been found that a great deal of inaccurate information had been conveyed in this manner, and, therefore, a strict censorship on such messages had been imposed. It was also mot the function of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Headquarters to deal with private cablegrams regarding particulars of individual casualties. Relatives and friends might rest assured, the Minister said, that their anxiety regarding particulars of casualties was fully recognised and was shared by the Government, and the system now devised was the result of the Government's most painstaking and exhaustive consideration of the whole problem.