Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1943. PARCELS FOR PRISONERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 89, 25 January 1943, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1943. PARCELS FOR PRISONERS.

The public generally will warmly approve the decision by the War Cabinet to grant £340,500 to the National Patriotic Funds, principally to meet the cost of food parcels sent to New Zealand prisoners of war. These prisoners now exceed eight thousand, and the cost of discharging the obligation to alleviate their lot in every possible way has thus increased to an extent that has strained, to the extent of overdrawing in certain directions, the fond that has hitherto been giving the required relief. Apart from parcels sent by next-of-kin, charges on the fund in the current financial year amount to no less than £449,250, out of a total budget of £ 1,129,500. After the sluggish response to patriotic appeals last year, the Board may well have viewed with anxiety the prospect of meeting all this year s commitments. Yet it would not wish to curtail any of its beneficent activities on behalf of the servicemen, and least of all those undertaken to improve the lot of prisoners. With the decision by the War Cabinet to meet three-fourths of the charges incurred in respect to prisoners of war the Board s budget is reduced to £789,000, a more manageable figure than previously. There will be in some quarters a feeling of regret that the whole budget is not to be met by voluntary giving, but circumstances make the departure necessary. All over the Dominion there has been a slackening of the popular response to the appeal. Whatever the reasons, regarding which there may be some diversity of opinion, there will be unanimity in the view that the allimportant object is to provide comforts for the men. As for prisoners food parcels, there is a obligation on the State to ensure that all servicemen receive adequate rations and none can quarrel with the War Cabinet for the decision to discharge it.