AGED REFUGEES FROM CHINA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 7

AGED REFUGEES FROM CHINA

Churches Support Plan For Home

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 15. A scheme to establish a home in New Zealand for 100 elderly Russian refugees from China was given unanimous backing today by a plenary session of the National Council of Churches’ life and work conference at Ardmore. The scheme has already been approved in principle by the national council, and the conference resolution urged it to “continue every necessary investigation into the provision of the scheme.” The national council’s next step will be to inquire into the practicability of raising finance for the project. Dr. lan Fraser, Presbyterian minister of Papatoetoe, who is the scheme’s sponsor, told the conference that a month ago the World Council of Churches had 600 of these white Russians on the “urgent case list.” The intention was to establish 100 of them in a home in or near some New Zealand town. It would be necessary to provide not only housing, but also clothing, pocket money and keep. Dr. Fraser estimated the cost of maintaining them at between £250 and £3OO each person a year.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would grant 1500 dollars—between £5OO and £6O0 —for each person, and Dr. Fraser considered this would be adequate to buy a suitable building. But the annual maintenance cost of between £25,000 and £30,000 would have to be found in New Zealand.