RETURNED SOLDIERS’ PROBLEMS FACED

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 3

RETURNED SOLDIERS’ PROBLEMS FACED

Work Of Rehabilitation

Department The problems which had to be dealt with by the Rehabilitation Department in its work of helping servicemen to return to civilian life were described by the district officer of the Rehabilitation Department, Mr H. D. Rowse, in an address to a meeting of the Lorneville Returned Services Sub-Associa-tion. Mr Rowse and the other guest speaker, Captain A. McGregor, of Invercargill, a former prisoner of war, were introduced by the chairman, Mr J. Brown. Mr Rowse explained the methods which were used in obtaining farms, and he answered many questions. Members stated that after hearing Mr Rowse they believed that more publicity should be given to the various aspects of rehabilitation. Captain McGregor gave an interesting and amusing account of his varied experiences as a prisoner of war for a long period under both Italian and German control, and gave a vivid account of a concentration camp which he had visited. He also described the damage done by the R.A.F. to towns which he had visited and was able to assure one former member of the R.A.F., who had bombed Cologne, that he had done quite a lot of damage. One sidelight on his trip from Brussels to England was the fact that the pilot of the bomber turned out to be a brother of two brothers who had been prisoners of war and who were detailed to that particular plane without any previous arrangements being made.