THE "SAVE THE CHILDREN"" FUND.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 10 December 1920, Page 4

THE "SAVE THE CHILDREN"" FUND.

' To tho Editor. ' Sir,—l hope you may find space foi | the following extracts from an article 1 in a a October number of the "Specfai, tor" on the starving condition of middle Europe. In view of our local 1 appeal for help for the children of i Europe they are of interest: —"1" v. dozen different, countries the conditions are terrible. The sufferers are too far crushed and broken in body and mind to help themselves Let us take the ease of Vienna. . . . It is a city not threatened with star i vation, but starving. It is not a city I of the dead, it is a city of the dying. J . . . The reaction of the clnldrei lithe present conditions is much n.'-iu starting and painful. Doctors . . • have stated that the typical boy oi !4 has the stature of a boy of 10 and the ' face of an over-worked man of midtieI age. A woman doctor has said i';•.'. j what struck her most when walking V about the streets, was that there wore ! "no toddlers." The explanation is i lliat children of three and even I :; I years of nge have to be carried. Xe: !y I (.11 the children "re rickety. ... In | one children 's hospital there is ijoh I only one ward in the whole hospital which is labelled ' non- tuberculous.' '■ . . . What happen:; to the children is I !!'.>) bo .much that they die as that in i their early years they are ruined for • life by ricketV. Rickets is a readily curable disease "if* taken early, provide:! tiiPt fat 3 and especially coddiver oil arc available. . . . We are lookin; on at the punishment of Vienna. ; ■• . doubt, but it- is a fate . . . not ••■ •'■■ ' ccMfnterl to by human being-. -" while "'■ !oo'fc on, know Hint '' ,~, I- :.• . . Behind and he ■ ■■: i -hi-:.! .V" •: an loom ■ thi ■''.- , •'.i.ncii: ! 'de of i Yi>h>i ... p'-f' io ' h. n, c i .>. -,n- dif,i • ■•• known to-ih-: ! ,v, o dvrn " ov.'d. . . . Vnltrs matter- c :•• i be i:noro"! : I . '. . dierJ 'ide mar -<:■ | v|>nes, and it will not stay shot* -< | Great Britain or of America. . . . 'fSie ■ appeal-to fear (for ourselves) is ea /■ j . . . Put we would resort to other ■ arguments. The best reason why we should help the people of Vienna and in all countries which are in a simitar plight is that . . . Humanity requires it. We know all the ordinary objections: 'Not another appeal! We are cleaned out already!' 'Why should j we help the beastly Germans or An.triansJ It is they who brought this trouble on the world. Le them suffer for it,' ear., etc. . . , Such objections ' are false to the British tradition. . . . The sentiment 'ourselves alone,' or even ''ourselves first,' must shrink and disappear in the presence of such sufferings as we have described in Austria. . . . By cfi'oi't and organisation there are means to save all Europe from the worst of calamities. And as for the children, we shall nor insult our readers' feelings by pretending that an appeal needs 'excuse. We therefore ask everyone who agrees with sis and who can give something ... io contribute to one of the collections which are about to 1-e made." The whole article olMhe "Spectator." from which the above extracts are taken, can be seen at the "Mail" office. —1 am, etc., GRACE FOX.