SOLDIERS' FRIEND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 19

SOLDIERS' FRIEND.

£14,000 GIVEN AWAY. GOOD DEEDS KEPT SECRET. CHEQUES SIGNED BT "AGENT." (From Our Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 24. At the State Congress of the Returned Soldiers' League held in Sydney last week, one of the most remarkable features of the proceedings was a statement submitted officially regarding the philanthropic actions of Mr. Alfred Firth. The story of Mr. Firth's activities in relation to our soldiers, both during and after the war, was made public for the first tme in a letter addressed by a sub-branch of the league to the secretary of the R.S.A.

Mr. Firth holds Turable station, near Warren, one of our Western townships. He is described as a remarkably modest and reticent man, and as he was anxious when the Great War broke out to do something for our soldiers, he arranged to do so in such a way that no publicity should attach to his actions and his identity would not be easily discovered. He therefore appointed a personal friend, a resident of Warren, to act for him, authorising him to sign cheques, when called upon to do so, with no limit to the amount. This was to be done under a bond of secrecy, and the agent in this respect played his part extremely well. It was not till many years after the war that the agent, hearing that Mr. Firth was seriously ill, went to the president of the Warren sub-branch of the R.S.L., and, "under stress of great emotion," disclosed to him the facts of Mr. Firth's benevolence, of which so far he alone had knowledge. He produced accounts and the butts of cheques that he had paid out, and it was shown that in this way Mr. Firth had expended on assistance to the "Diggers" in various forms the sum of £14,000.

It may seem that even a generous man might find some difficulty in getting rid of all this money in individual donations. But Mr. Firth, in defiance of all economic reasonings and warnings, had worked out a method of dispensing systematic charity as simple as it was effective. Said the writer of this communication :

"Mr. Firth made it a standing order to me that, when any man enlisted, if he had any horses, harness, vehicles or any such property, the agent was to purchase it at exactly double the amount the man asked for it." In reply to any suggestion that such generosity was excessive or that indiscriminate charity of this kind should not be practised without some restraint, Mr. Firth had one answer always ready, "The fellow might want it, you know"—and the agent wrote the cheques accordingly. Helped to Form R.S.L. Branches. In this way it was no doubt easy to get rid of thousands of pounds, which must have helped scores of men to go to the front with an easy mind, leaving wife or children at least for the moment beyond the reach of want. After the war Mr. Firth continued to be "the true friend of the Diggers." He assisted in forming the Returned Soldiers' League «rganisation& in the Western district, and he kept up his practice of helping our soldiers without much regard to the effects of his generosity upon his own resources.

"There has never been a case of need in a returned soldier's family or of an individual Digger brought to his notice that has not secured his prompt and cheerful assistance."

According to one account. Mr. Firth's numberless philanthropic actions have at times embarrassed him financially to a very serious degree. but this has not availed to check his altruism. Now he is old and ailing, and the R.S.L. wisely decided that it could confer on him no distinction that he would prize so highly as the League's Certificate of Merit, only one of which can be awarded in each State each year. The proposal to honour Mr. Firth in this way was carried by acclamation, and this rare distinction should pro\o "a monument more enduring than bronze" for his well-sper.t life.