RED CROSS AID

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 304, 24 December 1941, Page 7

RED CROSS AID

PENNIES FOR RUSSIA Britons* Practical Expression Of Sympathy British omcial Wireless. Rec. 10.30 a.m. RUGBY, Dec. 23. The Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund has passed the £1.000,000 mark. Mrs. Winston Churchill, broadcasting to-day, explained the success of the appeal by saying that the people of Britain were waiting on tiptoe for an opportunity to express what was in their hearts—admiration, gratitude and compassion. "We were awed and moved bv the indomitable courage and endurance of the Russian people," she said. "We felt deeply for the sufferings and sacrifices that have been forced upon the Russians by %.hose evil men who had steeped the world in blood and anguish. We all wanted, in some way, to give thanks to the nation whose dauntless resistance has given us breathing space befoue the next round of the struggle." Mrs. Churchill said that Tor the second time in history there was a retreat taking place from Moscow through the snows of a Russian winter. "The drama in Russia is still unfolding," she said, "but already we have seen the German plans for a speedy conquest confounded and those who went out to destroy are now themselves being destroyed. Hitler, who boasted a few weeks ago of the imminent capture of Moscow, is no longer at his general headquarters. He has gone back to Germany to promise his disillusioned people victory in the spring." She added that she would like the people of Russia to know that this £1,000.000 had been a spontaneous expression of national feeling and she had been deeplv moved bv the generosity and sacrifice the British people had shown. "More than 1000 schools and youth organisations have collected "and sent me close upon £10,000. I have had scores of gifts in kind and thousands upon thousands of postal orders and cheques. For weeks following my broadcast appeal on October 29, my daily post came in sacks. I received more than 50,000 letters. A large part of the total comes from '.he people's Red Cross Penny-a-Week Fund. The whole of its income for the last three months of this year has been dedicated to Russia. "That fund has increased its membership by many hundreds of thousands under the stimulus of the" appeal for Russia. To-day more than 8,000,000 people are contributing their weekly pennies through factory and house-to-house collections." RECENT EXPANSION BRITISH CADET FORCE British Odlcial Wireless. Rec. 11.30 a.m. RUGBY, Dec. 23. The War Office announces that the Cadet Force is to be largely expanded. The training of the Cadet Force has during recent months been brought up to date and is now designed to afford boys preliminary instruction which will be valuable to those who join the Regular Army or the Home Guard. Although the Cadet Force is not part of the Home Guard, every encouragement is given to cadets to join the Home Guard as soon as they are old enough. In this way the Cadet Force will play a part, not only in it 3 special task by affording pre-entry training for the army, but also in the larger scheme for the training of youth, which is under the direction of the Board of Educa- j tion.