RAZOR RETURNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27358, 6 April 1950, Page 6

RAZOR RETURNS

Missing Since Greek Campaign SURPRISE FOR OWNER It had taken nine years and a roundabout route, but a Dunedin exserviceman finally regained possession of a presentation Rolls razor this week. It was a pleasant surprise, for he had last seen the razor somewhere in Greece during the 1941 campaign. Before he went overseas, Mr Frank Curtis was presented with a Rolls razor by his fellow employees at Dominion Fertilisers, the case being inscribed. “ I lost it somewhere in the general scramble in Greece,” said Mr Curtis. ‘‘l wrote it off and thought little more about it.” But this week it came back to him, together with an account of its travels in the intervening years. The razor had been picked up by an Australian soldier, who saw it while lying under a truck during an air raid. The Australian kept it during the war and eventually took it home with him. Talking to an executive of his company a few months ago, the Australian asked if he had ever heard of a firm called Dominion Fertilisers. The executive thought the. firm was somewhere in New Zealand, so the razor's finder suggested that he should bring it over to New Zealand next time he made a business trip across the Tasman. Last month the executive came to New Zealand and made a call at Base Records, Wellington, to tell the story and see whether they knew if a soldier named Frank Curtis was still in New Zealand. Base Records had Mr Curtis's address, and when the Australian came to Dunedin he phoned the razor’s original owner and advised him that he had something of a surprise package to hand over. “I had never thought I would see the razor again,” said Mr Curtis. “It was a most pleasant surprise and a very decent act on the part of the Australian.”