BLIND SOLDIERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 119, 22 May 1941, Page 16

BLIND SOLDIERS

WORK IN AMERICA NEW ZEALANDER'S LETTER An interesting letter has been received by Mr. R. E. Selby, honorary secretary of the Wellington Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Blind Soldiers and Sailors' Fund, from Sir Clutha Mackenzie, who is doing special work In the United States and Canada for blind soldiers and sailors. The letter, which is written from New York, under date April Iβ, is as follows:— ■"I ■wonder if you would kindly pass on to my .blinded soldier comrades in Now Zealand very cordial messages from •blinded soldiers in Canada, as well as their appreciative thanks for the messages J was given to brine to them from New Zealand. On the sth of this month tin , Ontario men kin<lly gave jue a dinner at the Sir Arthur Pearson Club at Pearson Hall. Toronto. A lively body it is. with Mr. Ilarvy Lyons as president, who remembers well a number of our New Zealand fellows. The Canadians are a 'brisk and active lot. and anust of them seem .busy in administrative ami 'business post. 6 ;, university work, and massage, etc Colonel Baker expressed his deep regrets that the outbreak of war ]iut an end to his hopes of journeyuuj to Xenv Zealand last year for the Centenary Blinded Soldiers" Reunion, but he looks forward to making the journey one of these days. Many of the Canadians made kin<l inquiries after the various Xew Zealanders they had known in St. Dunstan's days. "•"Colonel E. A. Baker, in charge of both civilian and soldier work throughout Canada, is doinjc an extraordinarily line job. He-was totally blinded in Kranee in JOlo, where Jie earned the M.C. and the Croix de Guerre. >"or his work in Canada >he .h;is .been given the 0.8. K. and made an honorary Doctor of Law by liis old university. The Canadian Ciovcnimeut looks to him for expert advice in all questions of rehabilitation and war pensions for disabled Canadian soldiers, sailors and nil-men, and in this connection he was not long promoted to tin- rank oi lioutcnant-eoloncl. Jn the U.S.A. he is held in the highest ostceni. and is looked to, because of his unbiased and jtooind judgment, to iron out. many conflicts ill local blind affairs. The Americans have done him the honour of making him, a Canadian, president of the American Association of Workers for the Blind. "The limbless soldiers of Canada, at the annual banquet of the Amputations Society of Canadn, also asked that cordial messages of goodwill should <Ih> conveyed from them to their disabled soldier "buddies" down in New Zealand. "Here in Xew York the small but vigorous «rou.p of Australians and Sew Zeal-anders are -making extensive preparations for Anzac Day—a service, a dinner and a world 'broiuleast. Due of the most active people here on Xew Zealand's Mialf is Mi.-s Xola Liixford. of Hastings. iShe is a tremendous "worker with seemingly inexhaustible omi'jy. She gives most o<f her time to the British-American Ambulance Corn*;, which has furnished many splendid sift ambulances to the Anzac Forces as well as to Britain. She is constantly active on radio programmes and organising war relief parties, ami wherever she is or whatever she is doi"-. she Jwe always a keen eye open for interesting people in Xew Zealand, helping Xew Zealand's war effort, or keeping friendly social interest v'oi'isr among the Xew Zealanders in Xew York. "Unfortunately my daughter and T will miss the Anzac observance as we are leaving on a long journey covering many States and the Pacific Coast. "The other day in Toronto we took tea with Mr. and Mrs. Firth, be beinji. as you know, the busy Xow Zealand Trade Commissioner to Canada, thou'jh these flays war duties take bim -frequently to "Washington and Xew York.' ,