Hunger Campaign Seeks £500,000

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 13

Hunger Campaign Seeks £500,000

The biggest public appeal to be held in New Zealand—an appeal for £soo.ooo—will be made in a house-to-house canvass throughout New Zealand on June 16 by C.O.R S O for funds to aid the Free-dom-from-Hunger Campaign. The Rev. H. C. Dixon, secretary of the national committee of the campaign, said that New Zealand would be one of many countries taking part in the campaign. The objects were simple and direct to free from hunger twothirds of the world’s population, most of whom- live in Asia, Africa and Latin America '

The fund would remain open in New Zealand until i 960. But in view of the urgency and size of the problens every effort would be made to reach the target this year said Mr Dixon. ljh e hunger these persons suffer ranges from sheer starvation to the less spectacular, but much more terrible, hidden hunger of malnutrition resulting in debility, apathy despair and defeat. sons who show the effects of this hunger bv their proneness to disease. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that of world's population of 3 000.000.000 at least one-third will die in their early thirties of disease brought about by under-nourishment and that

millions of children will die from the same cause. "Organisations such as C.0.R.5.0. give what financial relief tney can. But this help, although it is valuable and appreciated, is only a small amount compared with what is needed. Not only must we think of the present plight of these countries, we must think of the mture. If tney cannot feed their people adequately now, how will they do so in future years with greater increases m population?

“Ihe money raised from the appeal will be spent on projects to improve the diet .and living standards of the people in under-developed countries. As 70 to 75 per cent, of these people art) farmers working on small holdings the best way to help them is to give them the means of increasing productivity on their farms, attacking poverty and hunger at its source.

“The Governments of these countries are doing their bast to help improve matters by putting large sums of money into land development, but the job is too big for them to handle unaided. An international effort has been called for and New Zealand’s effort must be in keeping with our knowledge of the need of the campaign.” Mr Dixon said that many of these half-starved people were too ignorant and poor to care who ruled them and agitators who saw the hunger of millions as a means to an end were stirring up trouble. These agitators saw hunger as a weapon to strip the West of markets, sources of raw materials, and bases. Some of these bases were only a few hours’ flying time from New Zealand. At present they were in the hands of friendly governments but the opposite could be true if there was a failure to understand the significance of a campaign to help these friendly governments raise the living standards of their peoples, said Mr Dixon.