ARMY SPORTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1942, Page 4

ARMY SPORTS

POPULAR IN MIDDLE EAST. . .. . PATRIOTIC FUNDS PROVIDE MATERIAL. Participation in sport is encouraged in the Second N.Z.E.F. because of its value physically and psychologically. It has been said that no army in the Middle East is better supplied with sporting facilities than the New Zealanders. Much of the success that has been achieved in the promotion of organised sport in that theatre has been due to the assistance given from the patriotic funds for the purchase of equipment. That attention and assistance are still being given to this side of Army life in the Middle East is indicated in the latest report from the National Patriotic Fund Board’s overseas commissioner, Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite. The report covers expenditure, totalling almost £7,000 (Egyptian), from patriotic funds for June of this year, included in the payments are four, aggregating £932 (Egyptian), for the purchase of sports goods, including 300 hockey sticks and 200 football boots. In addition to purchases of sports gear, subsidies to base sports committees have been made from time to time. The sports covered have included boxing, wrestling, cricket, football, athletics, tennis, bowls, baseball, rowing, and tennis. The report also serves to show the many ways in which assistance is given from the patriotic funds. The largest payment for the month was one of £4,089 to meet the monthly expenses of the Y.M.C.A. Other payments include the following: Grants to the New Zealand Church Army, assistance to the Kiwi Concert Party, allowances to chaplains for special welfare work, a grant of £lOOO for the work of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society, and a grant towards the establishment of unit funds for a new unit,