RELIEF OF DISTRESS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 65, 24 April 1946, Page 5

RELIEF OF DISTRESS

C.0.R.5.0, BRANCH FORMED

STRONG LOCAL COMMITTEE A strong and representative C.0.R.5.0. committee was formed in Whakatane last Tuesday evening when delegates from town and country bound themselves into a composite working group, the efforts of which will be directed towars the relief of distress overseas. The committee was formed at the call of the local Red Cross organisation which had been authorised to convene and instruct the meeting. Mrs W. Sullivan as President of the Red Cross branch, explained that C.0.R.5.0. (Council for Organisation of Relief Service Overseas) was the voluntai'y or civilian section of U.N.R.R.A. of which people had heard so much. It was under C.0.R.5.0. aegis that the first of

New Zealand’s Relief teams had been organised and despatched overseas, and it would also be its task to meet the cost of administering the group and defraying its expenses. The Government had authorised a Dominion-wide appeal to the public for finance and it was hoped by this means to not only support the four teams already operating in Greece but also to send others to China and possibly Malaya. The question of the activities of the local branch opened a wide field of operations. The appeal had been made for finance, clothing and foodstuffs, and in connection with the latter item this could be diverted to Britain herself as the need warranted.

It was unanimously decided to form a local C.0.R.5.0. committee and the following were appointed:— Chairman: Mr C. Kingsley-Smith. Secretary: Mi’S J. M. Winstone (pro tern).

Committee: Mesdames W. Sullivan and B. S. Barry (Red Cross), Miss Lawes (Junior Red Cross), Mrs James (St. John Ambulance), Mrs Moran (Galway Guild), Miss Righton (Gii'l Guides), Mrs T. Smith (W.D.F.U.), Mrs F. Prideaux (Registered Nurses Assn.), Mesdames Bennett and Norman (Women’s Branch of R.S.A.), Messrs. R. Morpeth and T. Jordan (Chamber of Commerce), Mr B. S. Barry (Borough Council), Mr J. L. Burnett (County Council), Dr. Akel (B.M.A), Rev. Bell (Minister’s Assn.), Mr H. L Brown (R.S.A.), Mr Trask (Government).

The meeting decided to elect three sub-committees upon which the vai’ious members would work in their respective spheres—Finance, Clothing and Foodstuffs. Each subcommittee will elect its own chair-man-convener and secretary, who will in turn become members of a working executive of eight (Chairman and Secretary of General Committee being ex-officio members). Each committee will be entirely selfcontained and will administer and create its own methods of raising funds. or of collecting clothing or foodstuffs such as fats or soap. The first meeting will be held in the near future.

The committees were appointed

as under:—

Finance: Messrs. B. S. Barry, R. Morpeth, L. H. Brown, J. L. Burnett, T. L. Jordan and the chairman (convener). Clothing: Mesdames W. Sullivan, Bennett, Moran, Barry (convener), and Misses Lawes and Righton, together with appointees from the Registered Nurses Assn., W.D.F.U. and Women’s Institute. Foodstuffs: Mesdames B. Norman (convener), T. Smith, Moran, Miss Lawes, an appointee from the Women’s Institute and Mr Trask.

Rev. Bell was appointed special representative from the Ministers Association. It was decided to write Mr Geo. Murray of Otakiri, complimenting the residents of that district on the relief work which had already been accomplished by special collection and offering co-operation in future.

It was also decided to write C.0.R.5.0. % headquarters seeking the fullest information regarding the enormous foodstocks in Sylvia Park Auckland, which were previously owned by the American Ai-my authorities and urging that as the food was apparently surplus and deteriorating, every effort should be made to ship it overseas to the countries most in need of it.

Closing the meeting the chairman

thanked all present for their attendance and expressed the hope that the objects in mind would be fully achieved and that in attaining that end the fullest harmony of action would be preserved.