N.Z. MEMORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 888, 4 February 1930, Page 7

N.Z. MEMORIAL

HOSPITAL VILLA IN PALESTINE INTERNATIONAL EFFORT To serve the dual purpose of a. memorial to tho New Zealanders who participated in the pursuit and capture of the Turks in Palestine, and also to bring New Zealand into a work of great international importance, it is proposed to erect a New Zealand memorial villa at the Lebanon International Mental Hospital at Asfuriyeh. The proposal was launched by New Zealand supporters and sympathisers at a meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce recently, presided over by Mr. J. Knight, when a cheque for £SO and a number of smaller cheques v/ere received. At present there is no British memorial at Beirot, although tho French have erected one, and it is tho endeavour of the committee that the great work performed by tho New Zealand and Australian troops in the liberation of Syria should be adequately commemorated. Apart from the memorial aspect of the proposed villa, the committee points out that an excellent opportunity is offered New Zealand to participate in a big international effort. It is said of the Lebanon Hospital that it acted as it kind of League of Nations before the political one so familiar today came into being. ESTABLISHED THIRTY YEARS Thirty years ago responsible people in London and Britain, with characteristic foresight, established for the treatment of nervous disorders this now famous international hospital on the slopes of Lebanon, about 150 miles north of Jerusalem. The then only hospital of its kind between Constantinople and Cairo, its doors were opened to rich and poor people alike of all races, creeds, denominations, and every status in life, furnishing, in the words of Sir AVyndham Deedes of the present London committee, “an example of high human endeavour, of a happy conjunction of Last and .West, and of Christianity in action.”

The New Zealand movement in favour of a Dominion memorial villa originated in 1928, when Dr. C. Assid Corban, of the Tokanui Mental Hospital, Kihikihi, had his attention drawn to the work of the international hospital by an article in a British medical journal. A committee was later formed and has been in close touch with the London committee, which includes many well-known British doctors and mental experts. Branches of the movement are now being formed in Wellington and Dunedin. Tho plan of the proposed New Zealand memorial villa, which provides for accommodation for 30 patients, has been approved. The proviso was made that if the £3,000 necessary to €irect and equip the building was oversubscribed the memorial features of the villa would be suitably elaborated. It was decided to send the first instalment of the donations to the London committee immediately. It was considered that in view of both the urgency for the additional accommodation at the hospital and of the generous response that the time was opportune to advise the London committee that the erection of the villa could be proceeded with. The following committee to organise the appeal throughout New Zealand has been appointed:—Bishop Oherrington, Hamilton; Dr. Corban, Mr. J. Knight, Mr. K. E. Alexander, Wellington; and Dr. K. S. Fossey, Christchurch. Mr. T. Watson Arthur was appointed honorary auditor. Donations may be sent to either Dr. Corban, of K.hikihi, or Mr. Knight, •Dominion Road, Auckland.