HELPING ALBANIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 7

HELPING ALBANIA

AN U.N.R.R.A. MISSION NEW ZEALANDERS INCLUDED (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, July 5. Half a dozen New Zealand men and women —all members of the New Zealand forces during the war—are playing a leading part in the rehabilitation of Albania, where they are serving with the U.N.R.R.A. mission in that country. Albania, the smallest of the Balkan countries, suffered heavy damage during the war, when 50,000 of a total population of 1,000,000 were killed in savage guerrilla fighting against the Italian and German occupiers, and 47,000 houses and buildings were destroyed. Every bridge in the country was blown up, and what was more serious in a predominantly agricultural country, nine-tenths of the live stock was either killed or carried off.

The new Government, which is composed of partisans who fought throughout the war, asked for help from iF.N.R.R.A., and early in 1945 an U.N.R.R.A. mission was sent to Albania. From August, 1945, to the end of March this year U.N.R.R.A. brought into Albania nearly 68,000 tons of wheat, flour, seeds, agricultural machinery, industrial equipment, medical supplies and clothing. There is no doubt these supplies have already saved thousands of lives, and that the supplies have gone a long way towards restoring the country’s agricultural economy. The New Zealand members of the U.N.R.R.A. mission in Albania are:— Miss Meryll Neeley, M.8.E., Cambridge, who is personnel officer; Mr John Payne, Dunedin, stores officer; Miss Nancy Baldwin, Christchurch, secretary to the supply director; Mr Rex Cranston, of Hamilton, port control officei at Durres; Miss Clarice Riley. Taihape, secretary to the director of industrial rehabilitation; and Mr Frederick Wrigiey, Wellington, mission accountant. The mission numbers 31 in all, the remainder being Americans and Britons.