The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-04

steak, some milk, and a quart of Scotch. Also pair of wire cutters and smoke pistols, tube of hydro gen and a balloon, helicopter, 8 shovel and pick"
 The prize code messages from prisoners of war came not from Germany but from Japan, when 16 cards were received in batch, all nearly identical in praising the kindness of the Japs, how well they were treated and how good the food was.
 One soldier, however, gave the big-hearted Japs an extra plug. T want to go even further than this, !" he wrote. T want you to tell it to the Army the Navy and particularly tell it to the Marines"
 MARRIAGES AND
 DIVORCES ARRANGED
 All kinds of odd jobs are given to the Red Cross and the Prisoner of War Information Bureau in keep ing straight the threads in the tan- gled skeins of life for these prison CTS of war.
 One prisoner in Germany ex- changed marriage VOWS with the girl he left behind him. DivorceS have been arranged for several, and in one case divorce was contested at the soldiers direction.
 One thing the censors are partic- ular about is taking out all gos- sip that might cause the men in prison camps worry. If some old scandal-monger writes a kind note to tell the soldier that if he comes home and learns tht his wife has been running around, he needn't be surprised, it is deleted.
 Prisoners buy War Bonds, change their pay allotments, direct how their personal affairs shall be hand led in their absence.
 Two corporals, feeling grateful for what the Red Cross had done for them in prison camps, directed that $100 of the pay held in trust for them by the Army be given that or- ganization.
 There are cases of mixed identi- ties to Straighten out, caused by thoughtless comrades in arms who may have swapped identification dog" tags as token of frienship or as souvenirs. Later one of the men may be captured, the other return ed home and discharged. In one such case, the parents of one man held in @ P. w. camp in Germany may have to write their son under another name because, to the Ger man authorities, the mans name is the name found on his dog tag, even if it did once belong to his buddy.
 Another one of these mixed iden- tity cases which took deal of strengthening out concerned the four-man crew of an Army plane shot down over Germany. Three of the crew were killed. On the fourth man, seriously injured and taken to a prison hospital, there were found items of clothing bearing four dif- ferent names.
 CIVILIAN P. WIS CAUSE
 GREATEST PERPLEXITY
 Worst mixups, however. have come from the civilians who were in Manila at the time of the Jap in- vaSion and who joined MacArthur's forces without proper induction in- to the armed services. Captured later on Bataan and reported now by the Japanese as prisoners of war, they present difficult cases for proper identification. It took eight months to locate relatives and prop erly identify the former superin- tendent of public utilities company who became one of MacArthur's communications officers on Bataan. In another case, prisoner identified only as from Springfield was put in touch with his family only after let ters had been sent to postmasters of all 9 Springfields.
 Enemy propaganda broadcasts from their prisoners of war offer an- other source of information and communication.
 On one of these broadcasts, a man reported dead was actually found to be alive and a prisoner of war. They knew it was he because he mentioned receiving letters from Uncle Harry and Uncle Al.