RED CROSS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25738, 25 February 1949, Page 2

RED CROSS

OVERSEA RELIEF WORK With money received from an anonymous donor for food parcels for Germany, the North Canterbury Red Cross bought tinned food, packed it into parcels, and forwarded it to a pitiable few in comparison with the needy millions in Germany. Letters are now being received by the Red Cross from those who benefited from these gifts. One letter said: “Thanks to your gift my wife was in the happy position of being able to spread our Christmas table more richly, so that for once we could eat as much as we liked, which without your help would not have been possible. How my children have rejoiced over the good marmalade, which 1 tastes so wonderful, and how good the splendid cheese was at tea-time!” An earlier letter says: “My son Frederick has received the shoes which were sent by you for the benefit of needy German children. You shotild have seen the boy glow with pleasure when he came home from school, and his mother told him that he could have a pair of shoes out of the magnificent big case of gifts. “Unfortunately, because of the war we have reached such a condition that we go about in rags and know not which way to turn. If you have children yourself you will know perhaps what it js to feel that you can buy for your children neither clothes nor food, because there is simply nothing to buy. I go every day to work, and I possess two pairs of trousers, of which no one can say how much is trouser and how much patches.” The shoes and clothing sent —although in good order and clean—were all second-hand. The packing of good, clean second-hand clothing is carried on continually at the North Canterbury Red Cross headquarters, 105 A Cashel street. Two consignments of clothing, consisting of 25 cases each, have been forwarded this year to the British Red Cross, London, and the majority of these shipments will be transhipped to Germany.