C.O.R.S.O. ASKS FOR MORE THIS YEAR

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 17

C.O.R.S.O. ASKS FOR MORE THIS YEAR

New Zealanders had contributed £320,000 to the Freedom from Hunger campaign last year, more than ever before. However, he was making no apology for asking for more money this year, the Rev. Haddon C. Dixon, the national secretary of C.0.R.5.0., said last evening at a reception held by C.0.R.5.0. as part of the International Freedom from Hunger Week. The campaign had taken hold of the New Zealand imagination and conscience in a way as never before. Freedom from hunger was something that all nations, peoples and creeds could agree on.

Although the international campaign was a five-year one ending in 1965, Mr Dixon said

it was not thought that hunger and its causes would be eradicated by then. “While there is still one country which has not enough to eat, it is our obligation to help,” he said.

One person was dying of hunger every second, Mr Dixon said. The problem was one of distribution. It was a Gilbertian situation where farmers were paid not to produce. He was distrustful of glib and easy solutions. Food could not be dumped without bankrupting the economies of the productive nations, said Mr rixon. Yet it was absurd to have food that the majority of people could not afford to buy. “It is time the common man stood up and demanded of politicians and economists a rational system that would allow people to be fed without bankrupting economies," he said.

However, whatever longterm methods were being implemented, C.0.R.5.0. insisted that a certain part of its revenue each year went to i lieving the immediate situation. “It is useless telling a starving man he won’t be hungry in two or three years. By then he’ll be dead," said Mr Dixon. It was in New Zealand’s own interests to help the underdeveloped countries, said the Mayor (Mr G. Manning). “If we want New Zealand to develop her own way of life without conflict with other cultures, then we will help people to retain and develop their way of life, religion and culture, in their own countries," he said. “Now is the time to help these new countries to be able to help themselves.”