FAR EAST RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 11

FAR EAST RELIEF

ORPHANED CHILDREN

A NATIONAL APPEAL

A national appeal for funds to' "adopt" orphaned Chinese refugee children by contributing £4 a year for the upkeep of each child was launched last evening by a representative gathering of Wellington citizens and interested organisations. A strong executive was appointed, and efforts will be made in all centres to assist the many thousands of children orphaned and homeless as a result of the war with Japan. The appeal to I New Zealand was made in the first instance by Madame Chiang Kai-shek through the Chinese Consul, Mr. Feng J Wang. . Professor W. H. Gould was provisional chairman. Mr. Feng Wang said that Madame Chiang Kai-shek's plan was to put the children through a period of strict -training so that they would be under proper guidance and control, and to make them the builders of a new China. It would cost £4 a year in New Zealand currency to house, feed, clothe in a simple way, and educate Ca. Chinese child. ; Mrs. M. Lewis, who recently returned from China, described the work of succour being performed by the Chinese Women's War Relief Association. .In Hong Kong, she said, the branch of the association was already keeping 5000 children. A.council consisting of those present and representatives of contributory organisations was set up, with power to co-opt. The Hon. W. E. Barnard, Speaker of .the House of Representatives, was appointed chairman, Dr. Sylvia Chapman vice-chairman; Miss M. E. Magill honorary secretary, pro tern., and Mr. F. W. Furkert honorary treasurer, pro tern., and the following were appointed'the executive:—Mrs. P. Fraser, Mrs. E. Kelso, Paraparaumu, Dominion organiser of the New Zealand Women's Institutes, Dr. C. E. Beeby,. director of the Council for Educational Research, Professor W. H. Gould, Captain M. S. Galloway, secretary of the Wellington Red Cross Society, and the Rev. H. W. Newell. Mrs. Feng Wang, president of the Wellington branch of the Chinese Women's War Relief Association, which is already collecting money from the Chinese community, is to be an ex- : officio member of the executive.