EMPIRE GIFTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1940, Page 7

EMPIRE GIFTS

IN FURTHERANCE OF WAR EFFORT. SUM OF £161,000 PRESENTED BY MAURITIUS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 22. Among many generous gifts recently received from all quarters of the British Empire for the promotion of the war effort is a silver cigarette box which was handed today by the Governor of Mauritius, Sb’ Bede Clifford. to Mr Churchill. It was presented to the wardroom of H.M.S. Mauritius by the people of the colony. The box contained two cheques, one of £ll,OOO for the purchase of a seaplane for the ship, and the other of £150.000 subscribed by the colony as a war gift to Britain. In making the presentation Sir Bede Clifford said that a good part of the money subscribed was the gift of people of French descent, who were unshaken in their loyalty to the Allied cause and in their faith in its ultimate triumph. The Maharaja of Gondal has given Britain one lakh of rupees (£7500). to be devoted to helping evacuated children. Of this £lOOO will be devoted to meeting the needs of children evacuated from the Channel Islands, while the remainder will be used to meet the needs of children from other areas. The sum of £7500 has also been contributed by the people of Sind. India, to purchase a fighter aircraft for the R.A.F. A further sum of £1250 has been collected by the Cyprus "Post" for the Cyprus fighter plane fund from its readers, and a second instalment of £lO.OOO has been received from the Kenya Central War Fund.