PATRIOTIC WORK ENDS

Chronicle (Levin), 6 March 1946, Page 8

PATRIOTIC WORK ENDS

—Press Assoc.ia.tinn

j SALE OF MIDDLE EAST ASSETS

Bv Telegravh-

• WELLINGTON, March 6. Colonel F. Waite, commissioner for the National Patriotic Funcl Board in the Middle East, expects to arrive in Wellington about the .end of the month. He has been commissioner. for the Board since ;June, 1940. Latterly Colonel Waite and those associated with him in welfare work , in the Middle East have been attending to the sale of patriotic assets and the provision of comforts and amenities for troops returning to New Zealand or going to Japan. In a recent report to the I Board, he said they had got on very .well with clearing the assets. His jassistant, Major K. Collins, might have everything wound up by the end of March, but would remain for a time to attend to the completion of realisations, and would also act as 2nd N.Z.E.F. liaison officer in Egypt. The hospital ship Maunganui, leaving about the middle of February, was bringing the last of the sick personnel, and the work of the New Zealand Red Cross and St. John Ambulance was completed in the Middle Fa.st

Colonel Waite specially mentioned the services given in the windrng up process by Lieut. K. Fookes, accountant for the New Zealand Forces Club and canteen stores, Captain C. A. Cater, auditor, Major K. Collins, who had had the greater part of the burden of assembling and selling the assets, and Mrs Blackford, who had seen the Red Cross and St. John work through to the very end. It was not possible t? assess the work she had done in visiting the New Zealand sick in hospitals, particulariy in the 78th British Hospital. If a good finish had been made to welfare work among New Zealand personnel, it was because of the efforts of the four he had mentioned.