LIBERATED WAR PRISONERS

Southland Times, Issue 25642, 9 April 1945, Page 4

LIBERATED WAR PRISONERS

Meeting With Prime Minister

RECEPTION, CENTRE IN KENT

(Official News Service) LONDON, April 7. “Everything that has happened to us since we came into New Zealand hands has been perfect,” Brigadier Keith Stewart told the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at New Zealand Reception Group Headquarters, Westgate, Kent, today on behalf of 40 liberated prisoners of war who had just arrived there from Germany. Mr Fraser devoted the day to meeting these officers and men and making a thorough inspection of the New Zealand establishment in the Margate area, including a hospital which is to be opened on Monday. After seeing the remarkable way in which the reception group had overcome the difficulties of accommodation, labour and materials, Mr Fraser said he was greatly impressed and pleased. In a brief address to the staff and liberated men he expressed his satisfaction with the arrangements that had been made for New Zealand’s returning prisoners of war. He told them that if there was anything further they needed and it was obtainable they should ask for it, because the Government was determined, and the people of New Zealand were anxious, that nothing should be left undone in the reception preparations. They wanted the returning men to feel that arriving on the Kentish coast was like arriving in a part of the Dominion. EXCELLENT ARRANGEMENTS Brigadier Stewart spoke for the whole party. He said how agreeably surprised they had been to find that such thorough and excellent arrangements had been made by their own people to receive them. It was a heartening experience to have come straight into New Zealand hands, and there was nothing in the organization with which to find fault.

The High Commissioner in London, Mr W. J. Jordan, who visited the centre with Mr Fraser and Mrs Jordan, added his welcome to that of Mr Fraser, and paid a tribute to the organization and parsons who had contributed to the welfare of the men while they were in German hands. MrJordan made special mention of Colonel Myers of the Red Cross and St John organization, and Mr C. Burdekin and his staff of the New Zealand Prisoner of War Section, London. Mr Fraser was welcomed at the reception group headquarters by the commanding officer, Major General H. K. Kippenberger, Mrs Kippenberger, and the second in command, Colonel L. F. Rudd. Mr Fraser was introduced individually to the members of the staff and the liberated party. Y.M.C.A. INSPECTED After lunching with them he ininspected the headquarters and the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. attached to it. He then visited the main Y.M.C.A. in the area, which occupies the ground floor of one of the best hotels in the town. With a cafeteria, sunny balconies, lounges, writing, reading and lecture rooms, this is a very fine welfare centre. On the floors above is excellent accommodation for other ranks. These rooms, and many more which Mr Fraser saw in other residential buildings in this pleasant seaside resort, are being cleaned, repainted and furnished in readiness for returning parties. Being mostly private hotels, they are well equipped with all normal facilities.

The Prime Minister and his party visited the group’s new hospital in pretty open country at Haine. Here a great deal of work in preparing the building has been done by the hospital staff and one doctor laughingly commented: “We now know more about plumbing than surgery.”

NEW ZEALANDERS’ INGENUITY After Mr Fraser had been shown many examples of ingenuity, including an entertainment hall where the staff built a stage with odd bits of timber supported by titree telephone poles cut into short lengths, he congratulated them and told them he knew enough about the N.Z.E.F. Medical Service to be confident that the sick and wounded among the returning prisoners of war would receive the best possible attention.