HOSPITAL CASES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25964, 3 October 1945, Page 4

HOSPITAL CASES

SHIP FROM CHINA COAST ARRIVAL AT AUCKLAND TO-DAY (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 2. The Netherlands hospital ship Tjitjaiengka, which is on service with the British Pacific Fleet, is due in the stream at 5 p.m. co-morrow with liberated prisoners of war and internees from Hongkong and other parts of the China coast. For the sake of the passengers, who would otherwise have to be disembarked in the chill air of the evening and for the convenience of the hospitals, the ship will not berth until 8 a.m, on Thursday. Only two known New Zealanders are among the liberated prisoners of war. They are Sub-lieutenant (A) J. R. Benge, R.N.Z.N.V.R., of Wellington and Private B. Were, of Frankton. Also on board is Engineroom Artificer E. W. Watson, who has been brought back from H.M.N.Z.S. Gambia. Between them the men and women on board have been or still are suffering from almost every disease or sickness which the British prisoners of the Japanese have experienced. Some of the passengers are described as suffering from emaciation, others from malnutrition, many from pulmonary tuberculosis, and a number from beri-beri.