POPPY DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 92, 16 October 1934, Page 16

POPPY DAY

RELIEF OF DISTRESS

LAST YEAR'S APPEAL

I (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 11. On Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, poppies first became available for sale. In tho thirteen years which have since elapsed 350,000,000 poppies have been distributed, and the gross revenue has totalled £4,D23,9u9. Last year 35,000,000 poppies of various types were prepared, and the appeal realised I £011,803, being an increase of nearly £30,000 over the previous year's total. Nearly three thousand mauve blooms were made to meet Italy's want?. The report, which is produced entirely by disabled ex-servicemen trained as printers by tho legion at the legion's own printing works, states that Hie administrative expenses of the 1032 Keme'mbrance Day Appeal amounted to only 4.8 per cent, of the total sum raised. Even this percentage was more than that for the 1931 appeal,, the increase being explained by the fact, that the depression in 1932 caused a decrease 'of £20,000 in the collection, which increased the ratio of expenditure. With this year's increase in revenue it is hoped that the percentage will again drop to something near 4 per cent. The cost of poppies for the 1932 appeal amounted to 10.4 per cent, against 18.3 per cent, for the previous year. While the expenditure on poppies is technically an organising cost, this expenditure keeps in permanent employment at the British Legion 363 badly disabled ex-servicemen. It also provides permanent employment for a number of ex-servicemen in the poppy warehouse, which renovates each year about 5,000,000 poppies which are returned unsold. EXTENSIONS OVERSEAS. The overseas organisation of Poppy Day was again extended, committees being established in five new centres, San Salvador, Kabul, Damascus, Managua, and the Cocos Islands. The last named has a British community of nine, who have only three mails a year, yet they contributed some £12. Overseas collections for 1933 totalled £55,491 18s 2d, as compared with £56,976 9s for the previous year. Not only is Poppy Day celebrated in all parts of the Empire, but it is celebrated at sea. The report gives a complete list of the vessels on which poppy sales were organised in 1933. A total of 196 vessels participated in this section of the appeal, which produced £1931 3s sd, a substantial increase over 1932, when the collection totalled £1565 10s Id. The Commonwealth and Dominion Line of cargo steamers collected £17 5s 3d, the New Zealand Shipping Company's two liners,-Rangi-1 tane and Remuera, £15 9s 3d, and four ships of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company £21 16s Od. At September 30, 1933 (the report states) there were no less than 3692 Local British Legion and United Services Fund Benevolent Committees operating in cities, towns, and villages throughout the length and breadth of England, Wales, and Ireland, _ and in overseas countries, engaged in this I work.

The expenditure of the Fund in the Belief of Distress through Local Benevolent Committees this year has amounted to £109,770 or roughly, £20,000 less than in the previous year. It is estimated that during the year more than 300,000 cases have been helped by the Local Benevolent Committees, with grants for1 food, clothing, coal, bedding, etc.