GIFT PARCELS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 10

GIFT PARCELS

LETTERS OF THANKS

WOMEN'S WORK PRAISED

"UNSEEN FRIENDS"

Letters which have just arrived in Wellington from members of the New Zealand Expeditionary, Force, both in England and in Egypt, express appreciation of the gift parcels made up throughout the Dominion and forwarded to them by the National Patriotic Fund Board. "Great news yesterday," writes a member of the First Echelon from Egypt. "We all received a parcel each from the Patriotic. They were just handed out as we lined up and the one I got was from Otago. It was very nice, too; the tin of apricots was very welcome. Any fruit is here, as we don't see any, or vegetables either !for that matter. It also contained a tin of coffee and milk, a pad, on which 11 am writing this, 50 cigarettes, handkerchief, soap, and bootlaces. I wanted to get a Wellington one, but had to take them as they came. It was all very nice and we were like a lot of kids at Christmas time. Tell all the ladies who work so hard that I know at least 150 chaps who were made happy by. their efforts, and that there will be hundreds more." A MAORI'S THANKS. The Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council received from England a quaintly-worded letter from a member of the 28th Maori Battalion. After expressing thanks for the parcels that had been sent to the Maori Battalion, the writer said he was keeping in good health and thinking of returning home to New Zealand some "day, he hoped. "Don't worry about the New Zealanders; they are well and happy," the letter continued. "The people here are so good to us. They generally come over and give entertainments and some of them usually ask some of us to their homes." The letter concluded: "To, the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council I have no more to tell you, so best of wishes and good luck to all. From your faithful friend." LETTERS TO NAVY STAFF. Gifts of woollen comforts which have been made to men leaving this country to join the Royal Navy or for service with the Fleet Air Arm have also drawn letters of appreciation. These have been received by women members of the staff of the Navy Department, Wellington, and the secretary of the Navy League War Council. The women members of the Navy Department staff have supplied to the individual members of each naval draft neat navy blue bags made by them, in their spare time out of material which they have bought, and into each of the bags have been put .a longsleeved pullover, a scarf, balaclava, pair of mittens, two pairs of socks, and a hussif, these articles being obtained from the National . Patriotic Fund Board's goods store and from the Navy League. A number of the letters were shown to a "Post" reporter today, and all conveyed the thanks of the writer, and acknowledgments of the selfsacrificing work of the women who had made the gifts pqssible. The following letter, to a .member of the Navy Department staff, is typical:— "Miss , Please accept my thanks for the very acceptable parcel of woollens which I received in Wellington. Also please extend to the rest of the girls of the Navy Office, the New Zealand Navy League Council, and the National Patriotic Fund our thanks for their help. Already I have found these gifts most welcome, and I am sure that they will be doubly welcome when we are serving with the Imperial Navy in the North Sea:" The writer then explained that he was a member of a party of 26 yachtsmen who had joined the Royal Navy for the duration of the war, and that they hoped to gain their commissions after a short period of training. "But I am sure," he added, "that whenever we wear these garments we will always think of the kind people of New Zealand who have so generously worked to supply us with these most acceptable articles." "It's no use telling you who we are or what we are, because you probably know more about the whole business than we do," reads an extract from a letter to another member of the Navy Office staff. "But one thing we can tell you, and that is how much we appreciate the thought and kindness of the womenfolk of New Zealand. And may that interest long continue. Again my thanks and all good wishes to an unseen but none the less appreciated friend." NOT SO SATISFIED. A member'of the First Echelon writing under date of September 22 to his father in Wellington was apparently not so satisfied with a parcel he received, because it did not contain cigarettes or tobacco. "Yesterday the parcels arrived from the Patriotic Fund," he wrote. "There were some very fine parcels amongst them. The Wellington ones were the poorest of the lot from what I have seen of them, and the Hawke's Bay were the best. I think I struck a Wellington one, containing a tin of fruit, a pack of playing cards, some soap, a tin of sweets, and condensed coffee and milk. They were the only ones that did not have tobacco or cigarettes."