PATRIOTIC FUND COLLECTIONS

Southland Times, Issue 24834, 28 August 1942, Page 4

PATRIOTIC FUND COLLECTIONS

RED CROSS SOCIETY’S POSITION The relationship of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society to the Patriotic Fund, especially in the matter of the collection of money for the fund, has caused a good deal of discussion in Southland. Red Cross representatives have maintained that the society could not be associated with any general appeal for money for the patriotic fund without contravening the Geneva Convention and thus endangering its neutral status. At a meeting of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Council yesterday Mr G. A. Hayden, secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, said that the Attorney-General had given it as his opinion that the executive committee of the New Zealand Red Cross Society need feel no apprehension that the neutrality of the society might be compromised by assisting officially in the raising of funds by the All Purposes Appeal. It was the purpose to which funds were devoted rather than the nature of any appeal that preceded the collection of them that must govern the view taken of the nature of the society’s character and activities. In the United States and in Canada the Red Cross appeal was not restricted to provision for soldiers when they were sick, wounded or prisoners of war, but included benefits for them even when they were active combatants. There was no reason for believing that the comprehensive character, of their activities had in any way prejudiced the neutral standing of these societies. Mr Hayden added that this opinion had been sent to the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the. Red Cross Society in Wellington, but it had communicated with the .British Red Cross to ascertain its opinion on the question. INVITATION REFUSED

An invitation to send representatives to the meeting that Mr Hayden addressed in the Victoria Concert Chamber last night was refused by the Southland Provincial Centre of the Red Cross Society and by the Southland Committee of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society. The letter from the' former body stated that the centre was not an expending agent of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Council, and therefore would not have a representative present at the meeting. The committee of the Joint Council stated that it could not accept the. invitation as it had received instructions from headquarters, Wellington, not to associate itself with the appeal now being conducted by the Patriotic Council. . The letters came before' the meeting of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Council yesterday, and it was decided to hand them to Mr Hayden with a suggestion that he should make a statement on the matter or else refer the letters to the Joint Council in Wellington. - .