EVACUEES FROM CHINA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23321, 3 October 1945, Page 4

EVACUEES FROM CHINA

Majority Seriously 11l (N.Z.P.A.) AUCKLAND, October 2. The Netherlands hospital ship Tjitjalengka. which is on service with the British Pacific Fleet, is due in the stream at 5 p.m. to-morrow with liberated prisoners of war and internees from Hong Kong and other parts of the China coast. For the sake of the nassengers. who would otherwise have to be disembarked in the chill air of evening, and for the convenience of the hospitals, the ship wifi not berth until 8 a m. on Thursday. Onlv two known New Zealanders are among the liberated prisoners of war. Thev are Sub-Lieutenant (A) J. R. Benge. R.N.Z.N.V.R.. of Wellington, and Private B. Were, of Frankton. Also on board is Engineroom Artificer E W. Watson, who has been evacuated from the Gambia. Between them the men and women on board have been or still are suffering from almost everv disease or sickness which British prisoners of the Japanese have exnerienced. Some of the passengers are described as suffering from emaciation, others from malnutrition. many from pulmonary tuberculosis. and a number from beri-beri.