The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 24, 1920. RED CROSS HOME.

Southland Times, Issue 18829, 24 May 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 24, 1920. RED CROSS HOME.

A good deal of misapprehension seems to have existed in regard to the attitude of the executive of the Red Crons Foe; ny to the Soldiers’ Convalescent Home, and Mr R. A. Anderson's statement on the subject at the meeting of delegates on Saturday should make the position clear. It is obvious that the life of the home must be dependent on the amount of work there is for it In do, and if the government removes all the patients from it, the executive or the society is in duty hound to consider the advisability of terminating the home’s operations. The removal of the patients is something entitcly outside of the executive's control, but in the face of the report presented by Dr Garfield Crawford and Dr Wilson it was impossible for it to do anything but acknowledge the reasonableness of the government’s action. There seemed to have been some idea that the Home might have been continued as a hostel irrespective of any government aid or any patients under government control, but such a proceeding would have been oxtremciv difficult and precarious. The Red Cross Society's executive would have been in the awkward position of a body conducting a hospital without having any authoritative standing and without any means of enforcing its authority, for it is quite clear that the Defence Department would not be in a position to assist it in any way. It is extremely probable, if one might take Mr Anderson’s experience regarding the absence of any reports in reference to cases that need the home, that the institution would have been without patients most of its time. The time has obviously come when the future of the home must be definitely settled and we think that the meeting on Saturday acted wisely in deciding to proceed with the negotiations with the Y.M.C.A, and to leave the decision on the matter to a subsequent meeting. The circumstances that compelled Mr Anderson to make known the generous assistance given to the society by himself and the Hon. A. P. Hawke were regrettable, but it is ns well that such acts as those should be made public from time to time as a means to inspiring the public generally with a higher conception of public duty and with an appreciation of the fact that the amount of sclf-

; sacrifice in the service of the ! public that actually conies under our notice i does not represent the sum of the province’s ! generosity. The questions raised by the I removal of the patients from the Home will j come up again and we hope that by that time criticism, if any, of the executive’s j proposals will be on more practical lines j than it has been up to the present.