THE £1,000,000 APPEAL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 4

THE £1,000,000 APPEAL.

A N excellent lead is already being given in several parts of the Dominion in the effort 1o raise £1,000,000 for patriotic purposes, amongst them comforts for New Zealand fighting forces, relief in the United Kingdom, assistance in the re-estab-lishment of our fighting forces and help for their dependants. The Manawatu district, for instance, has raised £7,000 in the first week of its intensive campaign. An energetic and publiespirited committee is ■ already at work in Masterton with a determination that the amount of £B,OOO to be raised locally shall be raised in good time. While if is not in doubt that local committees here and in other parts of the Dominion will do their work enthusiastically and well, it may be suggested that the appeal now being made cannot be furthered better than by a policy of complete frankness on the part of the national authorities controlling and administering patriotic funds. The essential demands of the public who provide the money will be that it shall be spent well and wisely and shall not be allowed to accumulate unduly. Many people. no doubt, would be glad to have brief but explicit accounts of what is being done for the troops in the Dominion and overseas and it might be as wel] if some of these accounts came, not spasmodically, but at regular intervals, from direct and accredited represent;! lives of the fighting forces. The clearest possible statement should be given, also, of the uses to which it is proposed to devote money as it is being collected. The position of large sums being collected without, being earmarked for specific purposes is one that definitely should not be allowed to arise. In a late address, the Dominion organiser of the patriotic appeal (Major J. Abel) said in pari that: — Members of the fighting forces and their dependants needed much care and attention which were outside the province of the State. Already rehabilitation work was being carried out, and it would increase as the war went on. . . . This, no doubt, is true, but if is very desirable that the part to be played by the State and by voluntary effort in dealing with rehabilitation should be defined as clearly as possible. The mainspring of patriotic effort is or should be in understanding, sympathetic appreciation and approval of needs to be met/