RED CROSS APPEAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1940, Page 4

RED CROSS APPEAL

SUM OF £250,000 SOUGHT FOR RELIEF OF SICK, WOUNDED OR DISTRESSED. ADDRESS BY SIR J. ELLIOTT. Under the aegis of the National Patriotic Fund Hoard the -Joint Council of the Order of St -John and the Red Cross Society is making an appeal for funds throughout New Zealand for those who are sick, wounded, or distressed as the result of the war. The object is to raise £250,000 as quickly as possible in view of expected grave contingencies of the near future. This was conveyed to members of the Wellington Rotary Club at its weekly luncheon yesterday by Sir James Elliott .speaking on behalf of the Joint Council. He said that the National Patriotic Fund Board was only fathering two national appeals, one by the Y.M.C.A. and Salvation Army for soldiers who were fit and well, and this one for the sick, wounded and distressed. The fund being raised by the Joint Council was a collecting as well as a spending agency, but had no political control whatsoever. They had already sent £6OO to be expended on the sick and suffering in Norway. He reminded his hearers that in the Great War of 1914-18 £1,500,000 was raised for a similar purpose, money that was needed even now for men who suffered in that war, and said that this new fund would be needed for humane purposes for many years to come. The balance, if any, would be devoted to the rehabilitation of returned soldiers. They were asking the public to help them do the godlike task of making war humane, or at least less devilish than it would be. The very least contribution to this noble cause would give the glory of sharing in the privilege of mitigating suffering caused in the defence of hearth and home, and would convey to the soldiers that they were not forgotten or forsaken. GREATER EFFORT NEEDED. “The war effort in this country,” said Sir James, “is too flattering to our selfcomplacency. More than a year after the war began we shall have one division in the field. There are, alas, people in New Zealand whose ears are dull to the call, and the scales have not yet fallen from their eyes. Some desire most of all more and more pay and less and less work, and a good time. Those who defend us, the resolute forces of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the brave and chivalrous French, and the men of the Empire overseas leave us forever in their debt —a debt that is unpayable. “What need should there be for advocacy in an appeal for the wounded, the sick, the distressed? What is money easily spared in comparison with the sacrifice of those who leave all that jsjiear and dear behind, to endure .hardship and suffering, and who are ready to offer life itself? We can so easily, through the Red Cross, stretch out our hands across the seas with comforts and supplies, bringing a message from home to cheer the mind, strengthen the will, and relieve the sufferings of the sick and wounded. Do we need long casualty lists to open our purses? Surely it is now clear that before long we may sup full of horror.

“No effort on our part can be too much to check the ruthless power of our enemies, the mighty forces that are centred in ,the anti-Christ, Adolf Hitler. The women will not fail. They cannot serve in the army, but the Red Cross is peculiarly women’s work, and it appeals to their hands and hearts. Even, children can supply small gifts, and learn that mercy is twice blessed to them that give as well as to those who receive.”