PRISON LIFE

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXI, Issue 15165, 5 October 1942, Page 4

PRISON LIFE

N.Z. MEN IN ITALY INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS "I hope that I may by what I am about to tell you do something to allay your fears regarding the treatment that your relatives are receiving,” said Lieutenant-Colonel A. Tonnent when addressing a Wellington gathering of relatives of men who are prisoners of war in Italy. Colonel Tennent was one of the New Zealanders recently repatriated •rom Italy. In describing the battle of Sidi Rezegh when he and so many othei New Zealanders had the misfoitune to be taken prisoners, Colonel Teuuent paid a tribute to Brigadier G. H. Clifton, who was recently reported missing.

NEW ZEALANDERS IN CRETE Colonel Tennent said that before reaching Italy the New Zealand prisoners of war had been under both German and Italian control and that whenever the Germans had handed them over to the Italians they had apologised to the prisoners for the necessity. In Crete they met many New Zealanders who, had been in and out of prisoner of war camps, wandering in the hills in the inteivals and making their homes with the friendly Cretans. When they got short of food they gave themsebes up, stayed three or four weeks and then broke out again. There were about 300 men in Camp 75. the transit camp in Italy to which Colonel Tennent and hiß fellow prisoners were finally transported. Here they lived in draughty wooden shelters. Snow was thick on j the ground and they had no heaters. A well disposed little Italian general had visited the camp and had asked them if there was anything in particular that they required, to which they had promptly replied, “Yes—heaters.” In due course a stove was installed in each hut, but as the men were never given any fuel to put in the stoves they were quite useless.

On April 1 the guards came round and collected all the stoves and when the men wanted to know what was “the big idea” the guards said “April the first; summer time. No stoves in summer time.” Colonel Tennent said this seemed as if it must be the Italians’ idea of an April Fool's Day joke. In other ways, however, the prisoners were treated quite well by their guards. MEN RATHER BETTER OFF

In the matter of food and clothing the international convention was something of a double-edged sword, said the speaker. Actually the men did rather better than the officers in this respect, as the officers were expected to pay for their rations and clothing out of the allowance made to them by the authorities, and this allowance, which was in the form of a credit, was quite inadequate. whereas the men were provided with uniforms, boots, etc., as required, and those doing work of any sort received extra rations of food. Colonel Tennent said it did not seem fair that officers who were prisoners of war should have the cost of their keep deducted from their pay, as this did not happen when they were in the army. This had been pointed out to the New Zealand Government, and it had agreed in principle to pa.v a certain amount toward the cost of rations. He went on to describe the method of transit of the parcels of food and clothing sent to prisoners of war and gave it as his opinion that the chances of the parcels being pilfered were small. After being thanked for his address by Mr Justice Callan, whose own son is a prisoner of war in Italy, Colonel Tennent talked with many of the visitors.