MIDDLE EAST DIVISION
SURVEY OF WELFARE WORK (Special) WELLINGTON, Oct. 22. Reports recently to hand from Lieu-tenant-colonel F. Waite, Commissioner for the National Patriotic Fund Board in the Middle East, give details of the provision made to cater for the welfare of the New Zealand Forces during and after the Tunisian campaign. The picture shows put on during this campaign were a popular diversion, the New Zealand mobile kinema units showing to English units as well as to the New Zealanders, a gesture which was greatly appreciated. In three months 22 different programmes were screened, and 182 shows were given to total attendances estimated at 114,591. Special mention is made by Colonel Waite of the continued popularity and value of the New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo and of the service being given by the hostel established in Alexandria. After the return of the division from Tunisia the demands on the club in Cairo were heavy. In the restaurant alone over 80,000 meals were served in a few weeks. Many of the men availed themselves of the opportunity of buying silk stockings for sending home and also hot water bags. Stockings to the value of £6300 (Egyptian) and £ISOO worth of hot water bags were sold. In June payments from the patriotic funds held by Colonel Waite totalled £10,718 (Egyptian), of which £6845 was paid on account of the Y.M.C.A. as an expending agent. From October, 1942, when the Eighth Army launched its victorious offensive in Egypt, to the end of May of this year goods brought up and supplied to the division included 88,216 tins of fruit, 370,987 twoounce tins of tobacco, 9,431,000 cigarettes, 1,300,794 bars of chocolate, 245,166 packets of biscuits, and 87,648 tins of milk.
Canteen supplies distributed free to the division through the Y.M.C.A. from June 23 last year to the end of May this year cost the patriotic funds over £ 16,000. This period covered the campaigning from Mersah Matruh to Enfidaville and back to Cairo.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 6
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330MIDDLE EAST DIVISION Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 6
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