FLYING AMBULANCES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 280, 21 August 1940, Page 5

FLYING AMBULANCES

Given To R.A.F. By Girl

Guides

How- girl guides in all parts of the British Empire responded to an appeal for funds for the purchase of two air ambulances was described in a message from London received recently at the New Zealand headquarters of the movement in Hastings.

The gift of two Hying ambulances to the Royal Air Force, each costing £7500 sterling, completed the allocation of the proceeds of the appeal which raised more than £48,000. Contributions poured in from every corner of the globe where there are British guides. New Zealand guides contributed £lOOO. The Princess Royal handed over to the R.A.F. the two Oxford Airspeed ambulances, which are miniature hospitals carrying four casualties. Other beneficiaries of the appeal are the Royal Navy, which received £ll,OOO for motor ambulances; the Army, which received £lO,OOO for rest rooms, and the Y.M.C.A. £5OOO. A motor lifeboat, costing £5OOO, was also purchased out of the money, and the boat was taken before it was completed, for use .in the evacuation of Dunkirk. It was badly damaged and is now being repaired. In future it is to be called “The Guide of Dunkirk.” Many and various were the ways in which the guides earned their money —from doing odd jobs, washing cars, cleaning silver, weeding gardens, and helping in kitchens. One guide in Great. Britain went every morning to the police station to clean the sergeant’s boots, while a leper company in India went without meat ami fish for a week to raise their share.