WOMEN'S MISSIONARY UNION

Chronicle (Levin), 2 September 1946, Page 4

WOMEN'S MISSIONARY UNION

SOCIAL GATHERING Arranged by the St, Andrew's branch of the " Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union, a social afternoon was held in the schoolroom last Thursday. The guest speaker was Mrs. Margaret Patrick, MA. of Wellington. Mrs. Patrick spent eight years, including the war years, in Geneva. She was in close contact with Christian organisations that have established internatonal offices in Switzerland. Mrs. Patrick spoke mainly of the war -time work done by the Women's Guild of the American Church in Geneva. This group contained members of about six nationalities, who met regularly to sew for various objects. They were unable to send their work out of Switzerland,- but found plenty of scope in seeking to help refugees, internees and other victims of war. :One particularly interesting piece ,of work was the provision of small Christmas gifts for a few of the : 14,000 Polish orphans who were interned In Switzerland after the fall of Franee. The guild knitted, sewed and collected gifts in money and in kind (writing pads, pencils, toothbrushes, etc.) made up little bags of sweets and nuts, and managed to provide some Christmas parcel fof each of the 1200 men in one of the camps. At other times the guild worked at making children's clothing for the many Jewish child refugees who escaped from France * into Switzerland through the barbed wire. _ Christmas presents were provided for them, too. One attempt to help which failed, said Mrs. Patrick, was an effort -to send clothing parcels to the internment camps in Germany, where the families from the Channel Islands were interned. This was not possible because of the prohibition on the export of clothing. Coupons for all material used by the guild had to be contributed or collected by the members, and this' sometimes caused real diffiCVity..;. • " Tb:'give /the' 'audiende;. some..idea of -tpe many nationalities /met in Gefiftvja,- the Upe^ker ,;d^sc?ibfeg = a ^ga^herint.Pf her.oivh-fridnds-, whi^h , included '-people Jrom,' 13 coimtrieg and representatives of the Ro man Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Armenian anc ; Reformed (Presbyterian) Churches