SAVE THE CHILDREN.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 17 December 1920, Page 4

SAVE THE CHILDREN.

I To the Editor. Sir, —There are some in this district who think the effort being now made for Europe’s starving children is one to be 'discouraged as either unneessary, I fruitless or misdirected. I Let it be pondered that Otago lius ( recently raised £30,000 for this purpose —that Otago is peopled by the “canny Scot” who weighs well the facts before him ere he briugs from his pocket an array of sovereigns. If ‘.‘save the children” appealed to Otago, it may well appeal to us in our quiet, safe, and prosperous life here. In the New York “.Saturday Etruing Post” for November 30 there is an interesting article and appeal by Mr Herbert Hoover for further American support for the American Ke’icf Administration organised by him, I behove, after the Armistice. The work to be done was colossal —it iavol 'ed the fate and lives of five million children, of whom ‘' hundreds of thousands hud been orphaned by the tear, other thousands were wails astray in the general cliuo., and ail <n them suffering from . . . a long-dra- ncul period of under-nourishmen'. In this article Mr Hoover appeals for help for ‘‘the terrible v.inter of lin'dn ahead.” “When we embarked on our effort to keep things going through the winter of 1919-20 we thought that by the harvest of 1920 the recuperation in Central Europe would be such Ibs to release us from further respun.t hility. But in softie localities iho crops were very poor; in the moie backward countries the revival of in duo try and economic industry have I been so slow as to amount to almost i nothing, while in those States affected I bv the Bolshevik invasion our diflicuiites have increased and conditions have grown worse instead of better.” In the areas that still require help Mi million children are located, and del pendent on rlie world for their etticieut support. Mr Hoover's article can be seen at the Public Library. His name is known throughout the world; as he says, “my chief occupa " tioa for live awful years has been begging at the feet of the civilised world.” Let. Middle Europe not beg in vain for its children at our feel. — Yours, etc.. GRACE FOX The Library. Otaki, Dec. loth.