DISTRESS IN FINLAND

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 105, 27 January 1940, Page 13

DISTRESS IN FINLAND

Appeal For Clothing For Children The urgent need of clothing for thousands of-Finnish children who have boon evacuated and are completely destitute was stressed in a cablegram from the Red Cross, Geneva, which, was. received at a recent meeting in Wellington of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Red Cross Society. The cablegram was addressed to junior Red Cross officials and suggested that junior members of the organization in New Zealand might contribute toward relief. New clothing, knitting wool, or money, would be gratefully received. The committee decided to give the appeal wide circulation among junior circles in the Dominion. The recent earthquake disaster in Turkey was also referred to at the meeting, and it was reported that a cablegram expressing the sympathy of the New Zealand Red Cross with the sufferers had been dispatched to the president of the Red Crescent in Ankara. The Red Crescent’s action in subscribing £lOO toward relief after the Hawke’s Bay earthquake yvas gratefully recalled. Numerous inquiries, it was reported, were being received by the Red Cross from refugees in New Zealand, who were anxious to gain information about relatives in. the distressed areas of Europe. The executive decided that the society should continue to receive these inquiries, which will be transmitted to the International Red Cross Bureau at Geneva for action. It was stated that the Overseas Shipowners’ Allottment Committee had agreed to transport goods for refugees free of charge.

A report from the V.A.D. committee in the South Island, which was in conference recently, stated that this organization had made encouraging progress. A Dominion conference of the V.A.D. council is to be held at an early date. Appreciation of the assistance given by the V.A.D. workers at health camps was expressed by the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. H. Watt, in a letter to the society.