PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 4

PATRIOTIC FUNDS

RESPONSE TO APPEAL

DISAPPOINTMENT FELT

VALUE OF COMFORTS

Commenting that the response to the appeal for funds for the supply of comforts to the armed forces and the Mercantile Marine was disappointing in the extreme, the president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association (the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C.), when making a broadcast appeal for contributions last night, stressed the need for comforts and the value placed on them by men on service; There was a widespread belief that the patriotic funds being raised were under the control of the Government, he said, but that was not so. Mr. Perry referred to the confusion and overlapping that had occurred when patriotic funds were raised during the last war. "Under the Patriotic Purposes Emergency Regulations, 1939, such provision is made, but these regulations do not bring the funds subscribed for patriotic purposes under Government control," he said. • "There are established twelve community chests, comprising a general fund, known as the National Patriotic Fund, and eleven provincial funds. The National Patriotic Fund will be administered by the National Patriotic Fund Board, of which the Governor-General (Lord Galway) is chairman and which is constituted by the regulations as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. Cheques drawn upon this fund will be signed by the secretary and two members of the board, and by no one else. PROVINCIAL FUNDS. "The eleven , provincial patriotic funds will be administered by the eleven provincial patriotic councils, and each provincial patriotic council will be the authority controlling the expenditure of the provincial patriotic fund. To enable such expenditure to be made to the' best advantage, the provincial patriotic council is empowered to appoint as its agent any society or other body of persons which by the nature of its objects and the machinery of its organisation, is specially qualified to expend money for any particular purpose. As an example, what better . body ; could we entrust with the care of any soldier who may be blinded in the war than the Commercial Travellers' Association, who have done such great work for the blind soldiers of the last war at such infinitesimal cost. "The national fund will be one to which it is hoped and felt that money will be contributed both by the people generally and by provincial councils for purposes for which expenditure can best be made by a national body. In particular, all money for expenditure overseas must be paid into the national fund. ■.■'-• "Already the Y.M.CA. and Salvation Army have been ' appointed national expending agents ; for the work within the camps and the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society national expending agents for the sick and wounded. , "There is also constituted under the regulations a National Patriotic Council which wiir act, as an advisory body to the Minister ilpon the" methods and means of raising money for patriotic purposes and as to the classes, kinds, and quantities of comforts or amenities immediately ■ required or likely to be required within specified future periods and many other matters. Conferences have already been held of delegates from the National Patriotic Fund Board, the National Patriotic Council, and the provincial patriotic councils for the purpose of eliminating competition and overlapping between these bodies. I repeat and re-emphasise that none of the money subscribed and none of the goods donated or purchased will be under the control of the Government. ... NEED FOR FUNDS. "Good as the camps in New Zealand are, many extras are required by our fighting men who are training there. Apart from the additional comfort these extras give, I, want you who give to remember the pleasure and the gratitude with which your gifts are received. The men then feel that the people are with them in the sacrifice they are making in obeying the call of duty. . . "I assure you that the armed forces of today deserve all the assistance you can give them. A great and danger.ous task lies ahead of them—how great and how dangerous is not realised by more than one in a thousand of the people of New Zealand. I want the other 999 to realise it. I want^ the people of New Zealand to realise that in order to win this war they must make sacrifices too, that their-duty does not end merely.with paying their increased taxes—it only begins there. Although, as I have said, the response so far has been disappointing I want nevertheless to exhort you to subscribe to this National Patriotic Fund, which will be expended for the benefit of all members of the armed forces irrespective of what part of New Zealand they come from, > with an eager generosity which will convince even yourselves that your hearts are really in the war.: Send your subscriptions to the secretary, National Patriotic Fund Board, Wellington."