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Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1932, Page 4

At the annua] meeting of the British Legion held in England , recently, pord Jellicoe, in his’presidential address, said a perusal of the annual report -showed that there had been a very satisfactory increase in membership. At the same time he lamented that so many men who we r e qual fied to join the ranks of their old comrades were still not under the Legion’s flag. He. had not yet discovered any adequate reason why those- who could afford the small subscription should not join. Ignorance- of the value of the Legion's work was perhaps one cause, and that was very difficult to combat. The. Press had assisted very greatly, but he wished that they could find additional methods of making more widely known the work of-the Legion. In the very important matter of employment, it was highly satisfactory to record that they' had nearly doubled the numbep of ex-Serv:ce people who had been placed in employment during the 12 months covered by the report, as compared with the previous 12 months, That success was due to the establihment of branch employment committees with area -employment officers ip touch with the Headquarters Employment Department; and the cost of- the work came out at a very low figure. Last year he appealed to branches to form employment 'committees; singe then 600'branches had responded, but there still remains many which had npt, and lie -again appealed to those to make a special effort this year. In order to stimulate the work lie was offering a c-hnlleaige cup to the branch tl|at during 12 months placed the greatest number of ex-Sorvioe people- in oinpb'ynietit. He was rib id to record the c'o-se relations established between the Ministry of 'Labour ar>d British Legion. The turnover of the legion’s Central -Sales Agency for the last year wap onethfrd greater th"n for the previous year, and for the first six months of the-mirrent'year the-sales were up by CIOOO as compared with the corrosnon ding period of last year. He would like t- say how imu-h they we'-e indebted to the Press for tire valuable assi'tancp gjren to thp Lpofon in pro-v-ding free space for advertising individual eng,as. During the- ycup in one area along, 10.000 individual cases were advertised free of co t.