Px And Ngx

Contact With the Lads in the AIF

A CHEERY letter, dated July 3, from

Lance-Corporal John D. Wilkinson,

, j Papua, now on active service abroad with the AIF: Q hmif C +i??°D^ ive 7 0u much information PXs .and NGX’s (Papuan and New Guinea volunteers) as they are in a Jwi™ 1 ? units. But I met some during the evacuation of Greece and some more making their way to Syria for the offensive there, later.

The chaps from Misima were still all going strong a fortnight ago, and they are the ones I know best. The Port Moresby lads are in the thick of it in must be havi ng a sticky time.

F e everywhere. I met several on the b<pat, coming from Crete, including Jack Gnmson. Later—on leave—l man aged to absorb some cool beer with several more. Unfortunately, several are missing in Greece and Libya.

The Greek turnout was an awful business owing to the fact that we had few. pl + l nes there—and they were lost vfnnci m f the Ploc . e - 1 had no idea pre viously of the demoralising power of intensive air-attacks. The people of England must be in the nature of super beings to have stood so much, and remain unbroken. I shall eternally respect the Pommy after this.

“Another crowd who are great chaps are the NZedders—particularly the Maoris. I saw a big Maori sergeant, with three buffets in his leg, lying on a stretcher, waiting to be attended to. An orderly came along and wanted to give him some morphia but he said: ‘l’m in RF5' Give t 0 the kid, there’—the kid had had an arm smashed with ex plosive bullets.

“Later, an orderly came round, getting particulars of religion, etc., and he asked the sergeant his. He said, ‘Just put down whatever you are short of, mate. We are all heading the same way’.

“A 7 oun ? New Zealand lad—no more than twenty—said, when walking back to our lorries, after a raid: ‘When I was runnmg for cover, I jumped that fence with six inches to spare, and now I can’t even climb back over it. Gee, doesn’t it give you a fright’, and he laughed. I had a look at his lorry, and it had at least 50 bullet holes in it. The officer travelling with him said he never seemed to worry much about anything, except sleep.

“An Aussie, with a Bren gun mounted on a van, kept blazing away all the time, in spite of protests. He said: ‘While I am doing this I am drawing the attack to wards me, and, the other chaps are getting off lighter. I am only one, but there are hundreds of chaps in those lorries over there’.

“He certainly drew the attack on him self, and eventually ‘copped his issue’; but, in the meantime, a lot of other men had got past the danger point.

“There were lots of things like this; and the Tommies, in courage and re source, were not behind the Australians at all. For coolness, the Tommies take the ticket; but, when they have to, they can run as fast as the best of Menzies’ greyhounds’.

“Best wishes to all our friends in the Territories,”

M. Paul Vois who was being held as prisoner of war in occupied France, has been released. M. Vois, managing director of Le Societe Le Nickel, Noumea, was the only passenger on the French steamer “Notou” (2,489 tons) which was sunk by an enemy raider in the Tasman after it left Sydney on August 12, 1940. It is expected that the officers of the “Notou” will be released soon.