LARGEST DRAFT SO FAR

Southland Times, Issue 24681, 28 February 1942, Page 4

LARGEST DRAFT SO FAR

RETURN OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS WELCOME BY PRIME MINISTER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, February 27. There has now arrived home the largest group of New Zealand soldiers wounded in battle in this war. They left the Middle East shortly after the campaign in which the New Zealand Division and other British forces fought their way from the Egyptian border to Tobruk. Though New Zealand troops had been in battle in Greece and Crete, neither of those battles was as prolonged as the fighting in Libya, and soldiers returning previously have included a greater proportion of sick than the latest party. The officer of highest rank’ among them is Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Page, of Wellington. He was listed at one time as a prisoner of war, he and a number of other wounded New Zealanders being actually in the hands of the enemy for a short time. LieutenantColonel Page is a member of the New Zealand permanent staff, and before the war was a prominent Rugby player, representing Wellington and New Zealand. He went with, the Ist Echelon. Lieutenant O. S. Pepper, of Auckland, another New Zealand Rugby representative, and Lieutenant R. Miller, of Auckland, one of the official war correspondents, were also aboard.

It was while the New Zealanders were fighting in the North African desert that they learned of the outbreak of war in the Pacific Ocean. Those who have now returned say that the news did not cause any worry among the troops, but now that the threat had come towards New Zealand, they expected that their comrades they left behind would be much more concerned and would wish they could be guarding their native shores. The wounded and • the next of kin were addressed by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, and other representative speakers. Each welcomed them home and expressed the wish that they would soon be restored to health. Mr Fraser said the courageous spirit of the wounded, even those who would suffer disabilities for life, was an example to the people of New Zealand. The military authorities had bestowed great praise on the soldiers from New Zealand, he said, in remarking on the important role of the New Zealanders in recent fighting in Africa.