GIFT OF £5000 FOR SAILORS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23053, 22 June 1940, Page 10

GIFT OF £SOOO FOR SAILORS

SOCIETY’S GRANT TO LONDON IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE TO NIAGARA’S CREW fTHE PRESS Special Service] DUNEDIN, June 21. The Shipwreck Relief Society of. New Zealand decided at a meeting yesterday to forward immediately £SOOO sterling direct to the Shipwrecked Fishermen’s and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society, London, to supplement assistance for sailors in need. The chairman (Mr Edgar Hazlett) said that the executive had been- given authority by the annual meeting of the society to send an amount up? to £ 3000 for the relief of sailors in. Great. Britain. The total fund of the socifety, was over £16,000, and it was estimated that assistance to the passengers and cre\y of the Niagara would involve roughly £2600.* If the full £SOOO was sent to Great Britain the society would still have a fund of over £BOOO. After giving credit to Captain McLean for the suggestion that assistance should be sent to Great Britain, Mr Hazlett gave Jlis opinion that the society should send the full £SOOO. “If the need should arise for further assistance to sailors on the New Zealand coast,” he said, “we can rely on New Zealanders to see that no unnecessary hardship is suffered. “We have built up this fund so that assistance could be given in a case of emergency. Now the time has come for it to be used. They need every penny they can get in Great Britain, and if we are going to give, we should give quickly.” The question was raised that the indications were that the Niagara had been sunk by a mine and that there was the possibility of further losses on the New Zealand coast, and it was wondered whether it would not be advisable to send perhap% £2OOO sterling as a first contribution *tul to supplement it later on. ■ ’ “Notwithstanding -the number of appeals being made to-day," Mr F. Tyson said, “we could call on the public for contributions if the need should arise.” That was the feeling of the meeting, and it was unanimous that as much as possible should be sent to London as quickly as possible. The receipt of £SOOO sterling in London would mean a charge to the society’s funds of epproximately £6250. It was reported that the society was immediately in communication with its representative in Auckland (Captain H. A. Dillner) and had authorised him to grant financial assistance to the officers and members of the Niagara’s crew. Since the crew numbered 234, and it was likely that at least 100 passengers „ would also be in urgent need of help, the society would be involved in an expenditure of about £ISOO. It -was decided to send immediately authority for the granting of any assistance that might be needed by the passengers.