– 59 –

DDS to Dental Officer, Lauthala Bay Station, Fiji:

It is to be noted that NZDC personnel are not permitted to carry rifles. Please take steps immediately to withdraw any rifles that have already been issued. With reference to the Red Cross, this emblem is not used by the NZDC on any vehicles, buildings, panniers etc.

This was in line with a decision already given in 1940 by the British Army in Egypt in answer to an inquiry from the New Zealand Mobile Dental Section. (See pp. 166–7.)

The Mobile Dental Section proved its worth in the Army and, in a country like New Zealand with its scattered farming community, the lesson might be remembered and the same or a similar organisation adopted in a civilian dental service.