WAR PRISONERS

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21480, 23 July 1941, Page 5

WAR PRISONERS

GREECE AND CRETE SHORTAGE OF FOOD DESPATCH OF RELIEF (Official wireless) (Received July 23, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, July 22 Reports of chaotic conditions in Greece and an acute scarcity of food among the civilian population are causing concern in Britain about the state of British prisoners of war in Greece and Crete. The Red Cross and the St. John war organisation have, as an immediate measure, telegraphed £IO,OOO to the British Ambassador in Ankara and £SOOO to Dr. Brunei, representative of the International Red Cross in Greece, for the purchase of any food supplies available in Turkey and Greece to supplement the prisoners’ rations. The Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross recently stated that as far as they could judge about 9000 men were taken in Greece and these have now been mostly evacuated to Germany. The prisoners in Crete, totalling approximately 13,000, are probably in course of evacuation. The British Red Cross has established a reserve of about 500,000 parcels of food, as well as considerable stores of clothing, at Geneva, in charge of the International Red Cross, but these cannot be despatched to Greece, as heavy German military traffic going east through the Balkans occupied all the available freight space. Repatriation of Badly-wounded Arrangements for the repatriation of badly-wounded prisoners of war are under discussion, Mr R. K. Law, Foreign Under-Secretary, revealed when replying to a question in the House of Commons. Mr Law stated that proposals made for repatriation by hospital ships have not been accepted by the German Government, but Berlin recently made a counter-proposal for repatriation from neutral countries by ambulance aeroplane. For practical reasons the British Government was unable to accept the proposal in the form made, but had advanced an alternative suggestion which they hoped would be acceptable to the German Government.