REFUGEE YEAR

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 17

REFUGEE YEAR

N.Z. Has Raised £95,000

Of New Zealand’s target of £125,000 for World Refugee Year, ends shortly, only £95,000, or about three-quarters of the target, had so far been collected, Mr C. W. Morrison, the Dominion secretary of C.OJLS.O. JoM.the annual meeting of the Christchurch district committee last evening. “If the people of New Zealand will give us the remaining quarter of the money, thatirtm™ contribution of 2s 4d a head of our population—ls less than the contribution a head made by the United Kingdom,” Mr Morrison said.

He congratulated the Christchurch district on its increased total of money raised during the last year—“but the fact is that we have not yet reached our target,” Mr Morrison said. “In the words of Harry Lauder, we must keep right on to the end of the road," he said. Mr Morrison reminded the meeting that New Zealand had a high standard of living, higher overall than the United Kingdom, and had the means “to get that last quarter.”

World Target Of the World Refugee Year target in general, Mr Morrison said that 72 countries were participating, although some were able to afford only a token support. Governmental contributions pledged amounted to £5 million, while national C.0.R.5.0. committees in the 72 countries had pledged themselves to raise £l7 million.

It was disappointing that Governments had pledged so much less than the committees, Mr Morrison said.

“If the target of £22 million is achieved, ft will still serve only the minimum needs for refugees throughout the world,” he said. Mr Morrison, in a talk on an overseas trip he has recently made, and illustrated with coloured slides, spoke on the refugee problem in three areas of the world—Europe, the Middle East, and Hong Kong—and the efforts of UN.R.R.A. and C.0.R.5.0. to solve the problem. Slides shown depicted scenes and living conditions in camps and settlements in these three areas.

In Europe, there were still 22,000 people in refugee camps, and 90,000 people outside camps—living in barns, bunkers, henhouses, and attics, Mr Morrison said.

In the Middle East, there were 600,000 refugees in Jordan, and in the Gaza strip, a quarter of a million.

In Hong Kong, there were a million refugees.