PLUNKET WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1939, Page 10

PLUNKET WORK

RELAXATION OF ACTIVITIES TO BE AVOIDED.

DOMINION PRESIDENT’S APPEAL

“In these sad times when the British Empire has decided again to go to war for a cause that it feels to be just, our thoughts are all turned to those ways in which we may best help our Empire in its time of need,” states Mrs D. M. R. Begg, president of the Dominion Council of the Plunket Society, in a message to members of branches. “Many members of committees have loved ones who have volunteered for service. With resignation and a courage that is the more wonderful because war has now been stripped of all its glamour, sons are taking up the burden that their fathers so thankfully laid down more than twenty years ago, believing that they had saved future generations from their own martyrdom. Our hearts will be with them, and we will do all in our power to help them and to ease their lot. But I feel I must make an appeal to members of committees not to relax their efforts for our society because of other patriotic efforts. In a distracted world, the hope of the future lies in the children, and-the work of the society is doubly important in view of the terrible wastage of human life caused by war.

“When war broke out twenty-five years ago, the society had two hospitals, and a district staff of twenty-sev-en nurses. It now has six hospitals, and one hundred and thirty-four nurses. We can do no more truly patriotic work than to keep our wonderful organisation in working order to the best of our ability. If the war continues there will be many young wives whose husbands have been called up—let us not fail them, but give them the sympathetic service to which they are accustomed, and which they will need more than ever. “I feel I cannot do better than quote the words of Sir Truby King, published in the annual report of the society for 1915:— fj. Tn view of the wastage of human life due to the casualties in the European War, we feel that we should all make even greater efforts than heretofore in trying to ensure for the rising generation the best possible conditions for health, so that our children may not only survive, but may grow up thoroughly strong and capable of taking their places worthily in the battle of life.’ “None realises more than myself the difficult days that lie ahead of us, but I believe that we can surmount them if we meet them with the courage that inspired our founder and his first followers.”