"SAVE THE CHILDREN."

Matamata Record, Volume VI, Issue 474, 24 September 1923, Page 2

"SAVE THE CHILDREN."

I ORGANISER IN MATAMATA. ! Lecture at Town Hall. j Funds Needed. I

1 Mr. E. J. B. Allen, the New Zea- ; land organiser for the " Save the ; Children " fund, gave a lecture, illustrated by films, in the Matamata . Town Hall on Thursday night. Mr. ' Allen brieflv traced the history of the ' fund as follows:—Started in 1910, it has given relief in 22 different countries and numbers among the institutions under its control homes in England for blind children, in Belfast and the south and west, of Ireland for children impoverished by the internal troubles of that unhappy country, and in the south of France for orphans from the devastated areas in the north. The operations of the fund in England include the subsidising of the Church Army, the Salvation Army and the Invalid Children's Care Asso- ' ciation, colloquially known in the Old Country as the I.C.C.A. The immediate appeal of the organisation, however, was for the desi titute children and refugees in the ! Near East. Following on the GraecoTurkish war the fund was providing for one and a-quarter millions of refugees. It was carrying on this work under the direction of the Lcaguo of Nations and the British Minister in Greece. Of the number mentioned 90,000 per month were being treated in hospitals and clinics. Harold Spender, a journalist, found that in . the Stringos factory, near Athens, 200 ' people had died within six weeks, mostly as the result of lack of nourishment. Nearly all the children housed in the locality, and not under . tutelage, died. Twenty-five thousand | in the district suffered from trachoma, a disease of the eye, caused by mal- ' nutrition, in which hard pustules form on the inner surface of the eyelids. i The fund was under the patronage of the International Committee of the Red Cross Association and with regard to activities in Greece received financial assistance from the Imperial War Relief Fund, the Society of Friends CQuakers) and other Avellknown and reputable charitable or- : p-anisations. In Eastern Thrace Baron de Reading has been superintending (he erection of villages to receive the refugees from the eastern part of , that country. I The. nosition with regard to Greece war. that after the Graeco-Turkish ' war the non-Mohammedan residents of Turkey were expelled. Homes had +i be found for them and as far ns the Greek refugees were concerned ; the Grecian Govern'-"mt was spending £15.000.000 (Turkish money) per ve;n-. hut this was not nearly adequate. Hence the urgent need for .financial help from..this and other «.■countries. \ . 'i ' The speaker finished up by making ; a reference to Corfu, in which island | the fund was maintaining 20,000 refugees, and. the. orphanages recently .'shelled bv. the, Italians were under its ; . control.. In the boriibartlment two bf ■ .'-the .doctors and' several, assistants working on behalf of the fund were 'j killed- A striking contrast to the, fact ■1 that ' since the start of the fund's ' ' operations, not one worker had been "killed in any other part of Europe. !' At the conclusion of his address Mr. Allen expressed thanks on behalf ■• of the fund to Mr. F. K Lark, who acted ■ as chairman, owing to the un- ■ avoidable absence of Mr. W. A. Gordon, and also to the people of Muta- . mata for the way in which they had turned, out. He .said contributions ■ might fe left with Mr. Lark or sent' direct to the secretary, Mr. Egerton Gill. 17. Hcllaby's buildings, Auckland.