RED CROSS WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 71, 24 March 1915, Page 7

RED CROSS WORK.

A USEFUL SOCIETY. WELL ORGANISED BODY. According ao the cablegrams, Queen Alexandra, in a preface she has written for a book describing the work of the Red Cross Society, expressed her unbounded gratitude for what had been done. She points o'trt that as a result j of practical nursing twenty thousand men who would othgtwise have been lost to the Army have already returned •to the -front. Mrs. D. Gillies, who served during tie Soifttt African war, and has just returned to New Zealand from Eng-1 land, says that a high official of the headquarters in London expressed sur-, prise that there was ho branch in New | Zealand. He said that donations were sent, but there had been no attempt at organisation. | "Few people in this part of the world are aware of the wonderful work that i this Society is doing," said Mrs. Gillies 1 to a "Star" reporter. "BotK the Admiralty and the War Office have accorded j their official recognition to the society' as the organisation responsible for the Red Cross movement throughout the] Empire—the organisation which coordinates societies giving voluntary aid. The aid of the society is supple- j mentary to that provided by the medical departments of the Army and Navy, and i the society only professes to offer such | additional comforts and such general help as may be considered beyond the i reasonable scope of the official bodies. In | time of peace the task of the society consists of getting everything into work- j ing order so that when war breaks out! the work is thoroughly organised, and there is no delay. During the present crisis the society is undertaking the charge of supplementary Red Cross hospitals, Red Cross hospital trains, hospital ships, and all convalescent homes, so that the War Office ks relieved of a great amount of this work which would other,wise have fallen to its share. Thrring the present war all the belligerents-with the exception of the British (who work under the Royal Army -Medical Corps) and, I think, the Turks, are working solely under the Red Cross Society, the organisation which we owe to M. Dinant, of Switzerland, one of the greatest benefactors the world has ever known. When I was in England I visited the headquarters of the society in London, and was much struck with the wonderful organisation. An immense amount of work —and all done voluntarily—is accomplished, and one could only compare the office to a hive of bees. There was a business-like air about everything and everybody that enabled one to -understand how the Red Cross Society had. .been able to accomplish so much, and; earn the -high praise which has "been; *estowedaipon -it hy Qneen Aiexandra.".