ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE OF HELP

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21656, 14 December 1935, Page 3

ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE OF HELP

MANY CASES IN SPITE OF CONCENTRATION ON OWN WORK

This Christmas the Government will be looking after all relief workers and sustenance men. The Rotary Club in their splendid Christmas effort has decided therefore to give hampers to the indigent poor—i.e., to those who are not on the unemployed register. It is a shock to know that in this city there are at least 700 indigent families apart from the Unemployed, who are so desperately poor this Christmas as to need the generous gift from the Rotary Club. At St. Martin’s House of Help we are now concentrating on our normal work of helping these indigent poor. Since we resumed this type of work (on August 27) we have supplied 1203 applications for various kinds of help. We have not just supplied one or two garments to each family as we did when the applications were larger, but we have supplied from four to 12 garments according to the needs of the family. If it had not been for a lamentable shortage of gifts of clothing and of money to buy it we could •have supplied several hundred more applications. As it was many people had to be turned away disappointed. The Men’s Guest House is proving to be a rallying centre whence men can enter the public works camps. Readers will have noticed the farmers’ fears about labour for harvest. We send men out from the Guest House to as many farm jobs as we can get. During the harvest season we close down so that every man with us can help with the harvest. From September 1 to November 30 we supplied 1706 beds and 3989 meals at the Guest House. What can you do to help us carry on this great work and increase it? Good times are coming faster now, but it takes some time to get prosperity to the unemployed. It takes longer still to get it down to the indigent poor. Besides we have Christmas nearly on us. We have to acknowledge with many thanks the following further donations, one of which is from an old age pensioner:— £ s. d. The Masons’ Christmas Stocking Fund .. ~500 “Xmas” .. . • ..200 Mrs J.C. .. ..026 Mrs M. S. Brown .. ..100 Mr and Mrs F. W. B. ..200 Mrs T. Gaskell .. ~ 0 10 0 M. Francis .. .. 0 10 6 Miss Gibb .. ~110 M.B. .. .. .. 0 10 0 Anon .. • • ~500 Two Friends .. .. 0 10 0 K.T. .. .. 010 0 Mrs T. and family .. 010 0 “Inasmuch” (old age pensioner) .. .. 0 2 6 M. 10 0 G. Reeves .. ~100 Miss H 0 2 8 Anon .. .. ~026 Anon .. .. ..026 Mrs Geo. Gould •. ..330 N. .. ~100 An Old Lady .. .. 010 0 A.M.L 10 0 St. Barnabas’s Guild, Peel Forest .. ..500 Further donations may be sent to St. Martin’s House of Help, 199 Antigua street, and will be acknowledged by letter only. —1