PATRIOTIC EFFORTS

Southland Times, Issue 24826, 19 August 1942, Page 3

PATRIOTIC EFFORTS

Sir, —There are two funds —the ordinary Patriotic Fund and the special Sick and Wounded Fund. In 1940 the National Patriotic Fund Board conducted a “Fighting Services Appeal” for the former and the Joint Council conducted a Dominion-wide appeal for the latter. I have before me a printed letterhead: “Red Cross Appeal (for the Sick, Wounded and Distress Fund) under the control of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society.” In this appeal, concluded in July 1940, the Joint Council raised about £600,000 —more than double the amount aimed at. Southland, incidentally, remained aloof from the Dominion-wide arrangement and the Patriotic Council conducted the appeal in Southland. In 1941 when further appeals were under consideration the Dominion Joint Council was willing and anxious to continue the 1940 arrangement, but the provincial patriotic councils, assembled in conference, insisted on taking the whole matter into their own hands. Southland’s quota for the present appeal is £61,000 of which only £16,889 is for sick, wounded and prisoners of war. By featuring these purposes continuously and prominently Southland has now raised about £45,000. This use of Red Cross purposes in order _ to collect funds for fit soldiers is a serious breach of our international obligations for which our prisoners of war may be made to suffer. I cannot understand anyone asking the Red Cross Society to commit, connive at, or condone such a breach of its basic principles as might endanger the welfare of those men who are its special concern. • The Southland Red Cross Society is a branch of the New Zealand Red Cross Society which, in turn, is part of the International Red Cross. Although the Southland branch was formed only about two years ago (certain difficulties had first to be overcome) it is part of an 80-year-old organization which will continue to exist when war-time institutions have died out. If the unthinkable were to happen and the Government ceased to function the Red Cross would still go on: that has happened in the occupied countries of Europe. The suggestion that but for the patriotic councils there would be no funds available for either fit or distressed soldiers is too patently grotesque to require refutation. It is not the patriotic councils who are giving the money but the people of New Zealand. My purpose in this correspondence, now concluded, is not to attack other institutions but to defend the Red Cross Society against unwarrantable aspersions. While I have no objections to anonymous correspondents, I am not prepared to enter into a newspaper controversy with them. F. G. HALL-JONES. Invercargill, August 17, 1942.