Generally, United States soldiers based in New Zealand during the Second World War were welcomed. When the line between flirting and having sex was crossed and the soldier got VD, efforts were made to trace the woman or women involved. Listen to a nurse talk about working as a contact tracer during the war.
Transcript
And we weren't given the name of the man who had the condition, but we were given the name of the girl if he knew the girl, but of course half the time he didn't know the girl at all. But he knew the address as a rule. And he could give a physical description of her.
Interviewer: So it could be pretty tenuous then you wouldn't be all that certain of who you were searching for?
No, no, but if you gave the address, that was a was a bit of a clue, you see. But they would give extraordinary descriptions, I remember there was one, he said, Kathleen with a generous superstructure. Well I knew then look for girl a large bosom. And another one who had on her thigh, an arrow through a heart. I had to somehow or another have a look at her thigh!
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US National Archives and Records Administration
Source: Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. Reference: 18416
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