A NATIONAL GESTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 6

A NATIONAL GESTURE

The decision of the National Patriotic Fund Board to dispatch £100,000 immediately for the assistance of Londoners who have suffered in the air raids has been endorsed throughout the Dominion. The gift will serve a double purpose. It will indicate once more the unity of the Empire and it will place funds at the disposal of relief workers at London without delay. No one who knows anything of conditions in the United Kingdom will assume that London is not wealthy and public-spirited enough to provide relief for her own people. For generations it has been almost a matter of course for the Lord Mayor of London to make successful appeals to the benevolent for relief made necessary by any major catastrophe in any part of the world and it is certain that any such appeal for Londoners would receive unstinted support. New Zealand's contribution is a national gesture. The funds administered by the patriotic council have been given by the public of the Dominion for the succour of those who suffer from wartime operations. The gift to London comes therefore from the public in New Zealand. Its promptitude was as important as the amount of the gift for the present is a time when "he gives twice who gives quickly." Had an appeal been made in the Dominion for the relief of London sufferers the response would have been all that could be desired. But it would have meant delay in sending the assistance and the' national patriotic council acted wisely in drawing upon funds already in hand. An appeal has been launched for further subscriptions to replace the amount transmitted to London and there need be no fea'r of the response. But is there any good reason why the State should not replenish the patriotic fund by a grant from the public purse? The £ 100,000 sent to London was a national gift and neither Parliament nor the public would criticise the use of public funds for such a purpose. There are plenty of precedents for gifts to other countries in distress made by the Government of New Zealand as representing the people of he Dominion.