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Cretan Battle Veterans Return to Crete

veteransAccording to “stuff.co.nz” , two of the only remaining survivors of the Battle of Crete, 94-year-old Bill Bristow and Roye Hammond, are planning to return to Crete for the 72nd anniversary commemorations, despite the fact that the cost is around $17,712 each.

Both men want to travel to Crete but government funding was declined.

“Every time I step off the boat in Chania I feel like I’m at home. It’s just the feeling of rapport with the Cretan people,” Hammond said.

Murray Hoare, who knows both men said, “The Government seemed to have forgotten its commitment to pay the veterans for each journey to attend the anniversaries, and he was now likely to fund it himself.” ”Politicians have got a convenient memory,” he said.

”The prime minister and [former Defense Minister Wayne] Murray Hoare committed to funding future trips after it was exposed how badly they were treated, compared to the Australians in 2011.”

Michael Woodhouse, spokesman for Veterans Affairs Minister said that based on those trips, and the fact both had received $2,000 grants for another trip, there was no more government funding available for the pair.

New Zealand Battle of Crete Association President Deidre Hauschild was concerned about the way Hoare organised the trip.

”Who is he? He is not known to anyone in the Crete Veterans Association,” she said. ”He is more or less going through the back door and he is not doing it in the right manner.”

The trip is not sanctioned by Veteran Affairs and RNZRSA, as official trips in the past have been. Hoare applied directly to Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman for funding three weeks ago, after the veterans were medically cleared. Hauschild said funding should have been secured long ago before that, so other essential plans could be made.

 

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