WAR PRISONERS IN ITALY

Southland Times, Issue 24824, 17 August 1942, Page 4

WAR PRISONERS IN ITALY

Health Good And Morale High

“Do not worry about your relations who are prisoners of war. They are being quite well treated. Their general health is good and their morale is high. The lot of the prisoner of war is not pleasant, but it might be much worse,” said Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Tennent, who was a prisoner of war in Italy for four months, at a meeting of next of kin of prisoners of war held in the Y.M.C.A. institution on Saturday afternoon. There was a large attendance, well over 100 people, the majority of whom were women, being present. The meeting was arranged by the Southland Red Cross Society, and Mr J. D. Campbell, president of the society, in introducing Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent, referred to the work done by the society on behalf of prisoners of war. He said that since the work began about a year ago the women in charge had put through more than 1500 inquiries and had located 360 prisoners of war belonging to Southland. Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent said that apart front medical personnel, prisoners of war entitled to repatriation were men who were so wounded as to be unfit for further military service. The men were selected for repatriation by a medical board consisting of representatives of the International Red Cross and of the captor country. The representatives of the International Red Cross were Swiss doctors. Swiss doctors were sent to Egypt to act with British doctors in selecting Italian prisoners of war for repatriation, and Swiss doctors also acted with Italian doctors in a similar capacity in Italy. He felt quite certain that both sides were anxious for further exchanges of prisoners of war if these could be arranged. It had to be remembered, however, that an exchange was not easy to arrange. RIGHTS OF PRISONERS

“Prisoners of war have certain rights under the International Convention,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent continued. “I am.convinced that the Italians are doing their best to see that the convention is observed. In the prison camp where I was copies of the convention were circulated in English. If a prisoner is not satisfied with his treatment he can lodge a complaint through the proper channels, and he also has the right to lodge a complaint with the International Red Cross, asking it to send a representative to investigate conditions in the prison camp. The society also carries out a routine inspection of the camps. “I have no serious complaint to make about the camp where I was interned. There was the question of food, but to any complaints on this score the Italians replied: ‘You stop ships coming to Italy with food. We have not got the food’,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent continued. “Under the convention the Italians were bound to feed prisoners of war only on the same scale as they fed their own troops. They did that and they could not do any better because the food was not there. The food parcels received through the International Red Cross brought the daily food allowance up to a point where life became not only bearable, but quite pleasant at times.” HEALTHY DIET Dealing with the food served to prisoners of war, Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent said that prisoners doing manual work got more food than those who had only sedentary occupations. For example, a man doing manual work received 14oz of bread a day, twice as much as a man with a sedentary occupation. The diet was healthy. It included a large quantity of greens and quite often fruit. The vegetables were fresh and tender and well cooked. “The general health of the New Zealand prisoners of war is good,” Lieu-tenant-Colonel Tennent continued. “There has been very little sickness among the troops in Egypt, and no serious epidemic to date. This record has been maintained among the New Zealand prisoners of war in Italy. The New Zealand soldier is hygiene minded.” x . Speaking of the amusements in a prison camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent said that there were plenty of books. Cards were also played, and he could assure his listeners that there was no likelihood of the morals of the prisoners suffering through gambling because they had no money with which to gamble. Debates were held and talks were givep-by prisoners, many of whom had had interesting experiences. There were a number of padres in the prison camps so that the spiritual welfare of the men was not neglected. The prisoners /of the camp where he was interned had been allowed out for walks with guards. At the larger camps there were football grounds and the Italians were talking of providing picture shows. Altogether it was surprising how quickly the time passed. A vote of thanks, proposed by Mr Campbell, was passed to LieutenantColonel Tennent