AM EMPIRE APPEAL

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1919, Page 4

AM EMPIRE APPEAL

GRATITUDE TO THE LOWER DECK. LONDON, Oct. 30. In order to commemorate the services to the Empire of the men of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, a movement is on foot to establish permanent maternity homes—provided with qualified nurses—and to arrange for hostels £or motherless children up to the age of seven years. The idea at the outset is to have one such corporate institution at each of the three naval bases— Plymouth, Chatham, and Portsmouth.

The cost of each one complete is estimated at £50,000, and a generous donation of £IO,OOO to each has been promised by the Navy League from its Overseas Fund. It is the great desire —a somewhat ambitious one, perhaps —of some New Zealanders here, who are keenly interested in the lower deck, to t,r-' ind raise £40,000 in order to be able to establish one of these contemplated institutions as entirely the gift of New Zealand, the promised donation of the Navy League making up the required amount. One such home—the Alexandra—on quite a small scale, was established at Devonport at the beginning of the war, and despite the addition to it of other houses, it has since outgrown itself mny times over. It may be mentioned that the needs for the dependants of soldiers are already well catered for by the Government. In the fourth year of the war the Alexandra Maternity Home at Devonport had a record of 232 babies bora in it, while 565 cases outside w r ere attended in private homes by nurses supplied from the Alexandra, necessitating altogether nearly 7000 visits. Patients are received at the Devonport home for a fee varying from 15s to 42s per week, and the sum paid covers all requirements and comforts for a fortnight, or longer if necessary. From the outset Mrs Ferguson, wife of Admiral J. A. Ferguson, R.N., has taken the keenest interest in the home at Devonport, and was its hon. treasurer for four years, besides being on the committee. It was largely due to her that the hostel for children was started, care being taken of them l while the mothers were laid up, while, in addition, arrangements were made lor motherless children to be looked alter until reaching the age of seven, Mrs Ferguson—who will, perhaps, be best generally remembered in New Zealand as Miss Gwitha Williams, daughter of the late Mr and Mrs T. C. Williams, of Wellington and Auckland—was a vicepresident of this hostel. So far as Devonport is concerned, £50,000 is needed for supplying a maternity home of 50 beds; a children’s home for 60 motherless children under seven; a hostel for 50 nurses who work in the distinct as well as in the home; an out-patients’ block, including a hall for lectures, to accommodate 200; an isolation wing, and, of course, all arrangements for laundry, etc. The scheme has the entire approval of naval officers, and the opinion generally expressed is that there can be no better way for the Empire to acknowledge its debt to the gallant men of the lower deck than by providing means whereby their wives can receive me best medical attention with reasonable comfort, and their motherless little ones cared for from birth to the age of seen. Confidence is felt that all who realise the debt which the Empire owes to the men of the Navy will desire to show gratitude by contributing as they are able. Admirals of the Fleet Lord Beatty and Sir R. E. Wemyss are warm supporters of the suggestion, as also was the late Admiral Lord Beresford.