RED CROSS GIFTS TO EUROPEANS APPRECIATED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 70, 28 March 1949, Page 5

RED CROSS GIFTS TO EUROPEANS APPRECIATED

“Not only towns but also the remotest mountain villages were visited by need after the war. Our little mountain village of Bretstein, which is situated far from any town, perched up like a bird’s nest between the mountains, was also visited by need.” So writes Johann Wieser, of Austria, in a letter to the Red Cross expressing his thanks for gifts of clothing from the Dominions, including New Zealand. This clothing was collected about 18 months ago in New Zealand and it was a campaign in which Whakatane and other parts of the Bay of Plenty took a prominent part. The clothing and other wearing apparel was collected and packed in this country before being sent to Austria for distribution. The letter continues:

“One day relief came in a highly surprising way. One evening a truck arrived from the English Child-relief organisation “Save the Children Fund,” with gifts of clothing from South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. They sent us shoes, woollen vests and other articles of clothing, and these were distributed to us justly on Sunday. “We want to express our thanks for those gifts and we would like to thank the. Englishman who brought them from Klagenfurt to Bretstein,” the letter concludes. „ That is typical of other letters received by the Red Cross at Whakatane. Also with these thanks from Austria came letters of appreciation from many people in England ydio had been receipients of food parcels from this country.