PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 72, 1 July 1942, Page 5

PATRIOTIC FUNDS

A SOLDIER'S COMPLAINT

POSSIBILITY OF LEAKAGE

Writing home from the Middle Fast, a young Army Sergeant gives the following comment upon the amenities supposed to be supplied from Patriotic funds: — I was having a yarn to the old chap who runs our Company Canteen—a returned soldier from the last war —and what he was saying confirms the suspicions I voiced in a previous letter —that everything isn't right with the disposal or that Patriotic Fund money which you people back home collect so dili-i gently. Practically the only thing relating to the Patriotic Fund which ■the boys see arc the parcels, which you tell me are despatched at three monthly intervals.. Some got two last Christmas and some didn't. But the usual thing for the chaps who've been here say 18 months —-that s as long as the 24th have been here — is three parcels in that time. Other amenities —for members of the Division, the boys who spend their time out of Base, I mean—are confined to the Y.M.C.A. This provides them gratis with a cup of tea at night, one picture show a week with a mobile cincma, and writing paper such as I'm using. That is the limit of the amenities enjoyed by men of a line battalion. At Base,, of course there are some other items. The Lowry Hut (which wasn't Patriotic money) . The Church Army Hut, the Y.M.C.A. all these buildings are available' with their recreational facilities —for reading, writing, etc. Also available is the N.Z. Forces Club —an excellent institution, where they can buy N.Z. tobaccos at reasonable prices, and many other N.Z. products, as well as getting first class service in other ways, with hot showers, restaurant, lounge and so. But the Club, I understand, is self .supporting, so Patriotic money is

not being swallowed up there to any great extent. Needless to< say chaps in line battalions have no access to these facilities. Base Wallahs have. So that what Patriotic Fund facilities arc available are available only to the chaps who never stir from Base. But i don't need to tell you that the upkeep of the institutions I've enumerated above doesn't get away with the hundred thousand, or whatever it is you send over each year. What happens to .the rest I, (and nobody else I've ever asked) don't know. Regarding the Canteen Service in our Battalion —which I think is typical of the organisation "through the Division—we have a Company Canteen which sells us beer and tinned foods, and miscellaneous toilet goods which it is forced to buy from the NAAFI, except when, a truck can be obtained to run to Cairo, when a load of N.Z. tobacco and other goods can be got from the N.Z. Club Canteen there. This isn't often, though, iirstli* because Cairo's a long way, and secondly because the Company canteen's capital is very limited and is nearly always sunk in stock of one kind or another. At present the NAAFI will sell only

an indifferent brand of cigarette to our chaps, only a slight improvement on issue stuff. And they're not cheap. The Y.M.C.A. stocks N.Z. tobacco off and on. but they sell out very quickly. There are other tilings, not connected with the Patriotic Fund, that aren't too good. Papers, for instance. Some chaps complain about mail going astray, parcels too. I've been lucky evidently because I've had all mine up till now. I received a remittance for £5 12s the other daj r . That's sterling of course so it'll be less than you sent. Thank you very much, it'll come in handy. Does the Patriotic Fund send any free tobacco for distribution? Apart from 50 cigarettes the boj*s got at Christmas they haven't received any. If the people back home arc seeing that plenty of money is being collected it seems a pity to have it wasted or not applied to the best use, and I think someone ought to have a look into the administrative end over here.