"Kindly Remove!"

A TALL young man came in and directed the editor’s attention to the following paragraph in the “PIM”

Roll of Honour: Prisoner of war—Pte. W. Gossner, AIF infantry, formerly of BNG Development Co., Port Moresby.

Reported POW in Italy, 6/7/1941.

“I should like that paragraph with drawn,” he said.

“Why?” asked the editor. ‘‘Because it isn’t true,” he replied.

The editor bristled. “Well, it’s been published in this paper’s ‘honour roll” for three years, and no pne has challenged it before,” he snapped.

The stranger grinned. “I’m Bill Goss ner,” he said.

The editor was caught off balance “Then what are you doing here?” ,he demanded. “You’re a prisoner of war— and the war’s still on.”

And then Bill Gossner told the story of how he and several other Australians escaped from Stalag 18A, in Austria, after three years’ imprisonment, and eventually got safely away through the Balkans. It is a remarkable example of our lads’ native ingenuity and resource; but it cannot be published until after the war.

Bill Gossner was with the 15th Battalion of the 9th Division of the AIF, and he was taken prisoner in our first attack on Tobruk, in 1941. He arrived back in Australia in November, 1944. , His name has not been removed from the Honour Roll; but the words, “Escaped, 1944,” have been added.

The death of Mr. Herbert Brown, who for 20 years has been an officer of the Public Works Department of Fiji, occur red in Suva on January 6.