PATRIOTIC EFFORTS PRAISED

Southland Times, Issue 24881, 22 October 1942, Page 4

PATRIOTIC EFFORTS PRAISED

Overseas Soldiers Grateful

Praise for the efforts of the National Patriotic Fund Board to provide comforts for soldiers in hospitals and sporting material for men in camps was expressed by Invercargill soldiers who have recently returned home from service overseas.

Lieutenant Paul McLauchlan, who was in charge of sport at Maadi base camp for some months, said funds for sports material were supplied without stint by the overseas commissioner of the National Patriotic Fund Board (Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite). The men were given opportunities and were encouraged to play cricket, tennis, football and golf and indulge in a variety of other sports, including boxing, and sports material costing perhaps thousands of pounds was supplied from the patriotic funds. A limited amount of money from regimental funds was available at times for this purpose, but the bulk of it was found from the patriotic funds.

A great deal of valuable work for the soldiers overseas was being financed from the patriotic funds, said Lieutenant McLauchlan. The expending agents of the funds were certainly doing a great deal for the men. Perhaps the outstanding workers were in the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A. The help given to the sick and wounded by the Red Cross was almost beyond praise, while the Y.M.C.A. officers showed the utmost consideration for the wants of the men. They were to be found in the front line running the same risks as the men, and when the soldiers fell back a little from the battle for short periods refreshments were distributed free to the exhausted troops by the Y.M.C.A. A soldier who spent several months in hospital in Egypt, Driver J. Hastie, of Tay street, Invercargill, spoke enthusiastically of the patriotic efforts for sick soldiers. He said girls from the New Zealand Forces Club made regular frequent, visits to the hospitals and distributed cigarettes and other goods, and at Christmas time the patients were treated most generously with gifts. The New Zealand doctors and nurses who staffed the New Zealand hospitals in Egypt were doing wonderful work for sick and wounded soldiers, Driver Hastie added. He had been a patient in two of the hospitals and he had received the greatest care possible. The hospitals were equipped with most modern equipment. Colonel David Pottinger, of Invercargill, who was in charge of the No. 1 New Zealand Hospital, was extremely popular with the patients and staff.