FALLEN ANZACS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1927, Page 11

FALLEN ANZACS

HELPfNG DEPENDANTS

WELCOME CHRISTMAS GffIFWS

Distributions have recently been made to deserving returned soldiers or their dependants of moneys accrued by interest upon the New Zealand allocation from the Anzac Book Committee, and also from the sum of money allocated by the French Mission some years ago. The, money proved a welcome Christmas-box to people in necessitous circumstances. This is the seventh year in. succession in which the benefit moneys have been distributed through the Pensions Department. At the time of the Gallipoli campaign an Anzae Book Committee was established at Anzac' in order to produce an Anzae Book as a Christmas present for the friends of the Forces there, and it was decided that the fund resulting from the sales of the book should be devoted in some way to the benefit of all the troops who fought at Anzac. In March, 1920, a gift of £500 was received by the then Minister of; Defence - (the Hon. Sir' James Allen) from the committee, to be used in whatever way was thought fit for the benefit of those New Zealanders who fought beside the Australians and the British and the soldiers of the Indian Army at Anzae, as some small recognition of their comradeship. The £500 was invested in such a way as to provide 54 grants of £.12 each spread over fourteen years, and to be allocated to each of four Anzac men or their dependants. These are selected by the War Pensions Board each' year from amongst those whose cases are considered specially neccitous ones, and which are not amply covered by the existing war pensions legislation, and the amounts are forwarded so as to reach •the recipients in the form of a Christ-mas-box. FRENCH MISSION'S GIFT. It will be recalled, also, that after the visit of General Pau and the French mission some years ago, a sum of £400 was handed, to the Defence Minister by General Pau on behalf of the mission, to be allocated by him in his discretion to "the-widows and orphans of some of those New Zealand heroes who, by giving their lives in the cause of the Allies, have at the same time contributed to saving France from the yoke of the enemy." The £400 was invested so as to provide a Christmas box of £30 a year for 15 years. MONEY WELL SPENT. The Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. J. Eolleston) has received several letters of acknowledgment of the moneys distributed last Christmas, of which the following extract is typical: "I put the money in the Post Office right away, keeping it to help my daughter's education. She starts at the secondary school in a couple of woeks, and I was rather dreading the expense, but I promised her daddy she should have a good education if it lay within my power, so you ' can imagine what a blessing the money will be to me."