COMFORTS FOR TROOPS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 262, 4 August 1942, Page 2

COMFORTS FOR TROOPS

Appeal For Contributions To Patriotic Funds An appeal for the balance of £500,000 required by those controlling the patriotic funds to reach this year’s objective of £1,000,000 to provide comforts for the men and women of the armed forces here and overseas has been made by the deputy-chairman, of the National Patriotic Fund' Board, Mr. Perry, M.L.C. He said it did not appear to be generally understood that the main bulk of the money collected for patriotic funds was expended by agents of the board and not directly by the board. These expending agents were the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society (for sick and wounded and prisoners of war), the Y.M.C.A., the Church of England Military Affairs Committee, the Catholic War Services Fund Board, the Salvation Army, the Air Force Relations, the Navy League War Council and similar bodies. Mr. Perry described the many ways in which provision was made for servicemen and women and said that the cost of administration of all patriotic funds raised and expended during the first two years of the war averaged only 4/5 per £lOO, or less than 1 per cent., or id. in the £l. Of course some parcels had gone astray. Pillage had been one of the board’s deadliest enemies. It could not be stopped any more than theft could be stopped in peacetime. But for every packet of cigarettes which were illegally traded, 100,000 packets reached the men. It had been alleged, said Mr. Perry, that patriotic funds were being used and would be used to relieve the Government of part of its responsibility for the rehabilitation of servicemen after the war. This was not true. Distribution of Money. The sum of £649,000 is required this year for the provision of extra comforts for the sick and wounded, parcels for prisoners of war, and for the maintenance of the work of the National Patriotic Fund Board’s four main welfare agents. These facts wen; given last night by the board secretary (Mr. G. A. Hayden), who said that the respective amounts were: £171,000, £271,000 (this figure being based on the number of 'New Zealand prisoners of war before the recent campaign), and £207,000. “In other words,” said Mr. Hayden, ‘‘it may be stated that for every pound received by the National Patriotic Fund Board, unless there is a specified request that it shall be applied to.a definite purpose, 3/4 is spent on the sick aud wounded, 5/4 on prisoners of war, and 4/2 on the work carried out in our camps by the Y.M.C.A., Salvation Army, Church Army, and Catholic War Services Fund Board.’’ With the exception of one-half-penny, representing the administration cost, the remainder of the pound was spent on the objects outlined by Mr. Mr. Hayden summed up the purpose, of the present drive for funds by stating that it was to h>eJp the patriotic organization “to put a little jam on the bread of service life.”