NEEDY IN GREECE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 95, 17 February 1947, Page 5

NEEDY IN GREECE

WORK OF UNRRA “Conditions on the spot can never be completely conveyed on paper, particularly when you are dealing with emergency conditions under a different civilisation half the world away,” said Mr J. A. Horne, when welcomed back recently fronrGreece where he had been deputy leader of the CORSO Relief Unit. If the choosing of personnel was done entirely at the home base, he-said, it was almost inevitable that some efficiency or time would be lost when relief workers arrived at posts whose conditions they had not been in a position completely to envisage. He therefore agreed with proopsals » that had been made by CORSO’s representative in Europe and by the International Relief Committee of China and the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives that CORSO should send its secretary to see the posts which New. Zealanders were being asked to fill in China before finally deciding upon the men to fill them. A brief personal visit would also give a complete guarantee that relief supplies from New Zealand were reaching the needy and not being diverted at any point. , .

After‘strong support from Mr C. G. Burton, based on his experience as an UNRRA personnel, officer, and from Mr James Bertram, based on c his knowledge of Chinese conditions, the Council decided to send its secretary, Mr C. W. Morrison, for an investigating visit that would pave the way for the relief volun- » teers who will shortly be chosen and despatched. Mr Morrison has now left after receiving facilities and commendations from UNRRA and the New Zealand and Chinese Governments. He is expected to return late in March when present plans for New Zealand’s relief effort in China during 1947 and 1948 will be finalised.