NOBLE WORK

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21219, 16 September 1940, Page 2

NOBLE WORK

RED CROSS AND WAR MATERIAL AND PF” “OXNEL | HEAVY LOSSES IN FRANCE j (By Telerrapß.—Special to Tutirs) | i WELLINGTON, Monday j The magnificent work which the : British Red Cross and Order of St. j John has done and is still doing in the present war is described in a j special message which Field-Marshal i Sir Philip Chetwode, chairman of j the executive committee of the war j organisation, has sent to the chairman of the New Zealand Red Cross ! Society, Dr. A. Gillies. “It is difficult for us here, in Eng- | land, to tell the people of the colonial ! Empire how grateful we are for the wonderful effort they have made on behalf of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John War Organisation in this country,’’ the message runs. “I know very well that many people think the Red Cross is merely j a money-collecting agency, and that | what we give out to the press as to j the way in which their money is spent very often does not reach them. May I. therefore, tell you a few things which we have done since the beginning of the war to carry out our great task of mercy and relief of suffering. Battles In France “We sent out to France between £30,000 and £40,000 worth of medical comforts and stores. We have a j letter from the Chief Medical Officer ! in France saying how much these supplies meant to him in his care of j the sick and wounded during the J time that our Expeditionary Force j was overseas. “We sent out 58 vehicles, including 26 ambulances, fully equipped; j we established a convalescent home for officers, and another for nurses, and equipped and staffed them. “We sent to Finland £12,000 worth of medical supplies. Two aeroplanes were sent the moment Finland asked

us for help, with stocks of chloroform, inoculation serum and essential drugs. “We sent more than £12,000 worth of medical stores to Norway in the same way, the moment they asked us. In both cases difficulties of transport were very great. Everything Lost “In May came the tragic collapse of Belgium, the return of the 8.E.F., and later the collapse of France. Everything we had at Boulogne, and all our ambulances fell into the hands of the enemy. We hoped that we might have rescued the stores at Dieppe, and our staff, at great risk to themselves, went back time after time getting the stores out and away to the west coast, but such was the rush to save human lives that we. at the last moment, had to abandon them.

“We have lost everything we put into France and all that has to be replaced. “Then the wounded began to pour back to England, and in the first days of the Dunkirk evacuation we were asked for £30,000 worth of hospital comforts, which we delivered to hospitals all over England. Worked Day and Night “Our trained stretcher-bearers and V.A.D.’s worked day and night to remove the sick and wounded from the ships and take them to trains and hospitals. “The Ministry of Health, in whose charge the wounded are now, has called upon us to find 10.000 beds at short notice. They will help with the cost of equipping these hospitals, which may amount to as many as 200, all over the British Isles, but it will cost the British Red Cross and St. John war organisation huge sums to staff and maintain them. “We have undertaken to find for the War Office and Ministry of Health anything up to 200 ambulances, and we are well on the way to doing so. A large number of these ambulances is being supplied through the generosity of the Dominions, colonies, and British communities in all parts of the world: Fifty of them have been promised by Canada; 50 by the United States of America; and we have now another offer from the United States of America of anything up to 200. We, of course, have to staff and equip them.”