MOBILE LAUNDRY

Waikato Independent, Volume XLII, Issue 4002, 15 May 1942, Page 3

MOBILE LAUNDRY

ADJUNCT TO N.Z.E.F. 2500 BATTLE-DRESSES PER DAY (Official War Correspondent to N.Z.E.F) BEIRUT, May 3. j Two thousand five hundred battle (dresses are washed and dried | daily by the newest addition to the 'New Zealand Division—the mobile" laundry operating in Syria. When jSO tons of the latest electricallydriven equipment arrived from England two months ago, hone of the ‘present staff had seen a laundry before. Now they are working three j shifts a day and washing over 70,000 blankets, and all the division’s win'ter clothing before starting the regular weekly washing now done by ' natives.

An old flour mill has been taken over for quarters, and a mountain stream has been piped for water, giving 24,000 gallons daily. The equipment of the nine trailers in- , eludes a 27 k.w. generator, two boil-,; ers to supply washers and driers, .uv It is not a cumbersome affair, and j within' 90 minutes’ it is travelling along a road at 20 miles per hour. Within an hour of stopping, | the unit is working. If gas is used the unit can. decontaminate tliouI sands of pieces of'equipment and 'clothing daily. Later 2000 sets of summer clothes will be washed daily. Three hundred and fifty civilians are engaged in mending and ironing. The shifts work on a competitive basis,-with production cost sheets for each. The capacity of the unit is increasing steadily. There is nothing amateifr 'about the 'New Zealand 'Division Mobile Laundry.