PRISONERS OF WAR

Putaruru Press, Volume XVII, Issue 1038, 24 June 1943, Page 1

PRISONERS OF WAR

Items of interest are contained in the attached letters from soldiers who are prisoners of war. j Ewan C. Fraser, who worked for Mr H. Bartleet, Waharoa, prior to .the war and who was well known in the. Peria district, wrote from Ger- i many on 24>th January, 1942: j “I have received three letters from , you- They take all periods of time to get here. From two to nine ! months. I receive quite a lot of mail | from England. It only takes six . -weeks and less. The best I have h?d i is eighteen days. Now I will tell you something about myself- I am in good condition, as you w'll see from the photo. We. are working at a gasworks. It is known to be one of the best working parties in this country. The work is hot hard, and the working hours are eight a day The job I work at is shovelling coal —piecework- Some days we .work one hour; others up to five hours. It is a little harder in- winter -because, the coal is frozen. I hope you are all well again, ad I hope to see you all early in 1945.” A well known Matamata businessman writing from Italy on 2nd list of goods received through the ‘

British Red Cross Society in England: 400 cigarettes and a second parcel containing personal clothing, as follows: Pullover (made in Brazil), scarf (Peru), 3 pairs sox, 2 hankies and helmet (Hollywood), 'mittens, braces, woollen singlets and underpants, toothbrush, boot black, laces, toothpaste, razor and blades, kitbag, hussif, 21b chocolate, pyjamas shaving brush and soap, two pencils and cate soap.

The writer added, that some of the boys had received the February (1942) parcels from New Zealand/ and that winter had started that week-