GIFTS FOR DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 108, 3 November 1939, Page 6

GIFTS FOR DEFENCE

PATRIOTS IN AUSTRALIA

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, October 19.

Gifts to the Commonwealth Government'for defence purposes range from a cheque for £5000 to a few twopenny stamps. The £5000 was an anonymous gift from a business man.

Sir Thomas Buckland, a retired banker, who some time ago provided £10,867 as the cost of an Avro Anson bomber, has sent a cheque for £200— the cost of ten anti-submarine bombs.

Unable to enlist this time, a New South. Wales public service officer, who is an ex-Digger, has offered 5 per cent, of his salary, enclosing £3 as the first instalment. He has offered to increase this to 10 per cent, if Australia has to be defended directly by force, or takes part in an overseas offensive.

A Bendigo resident has sent a cheque for £50 to be used for defence purposes. The wife of a clergyman in an inland centre has given her greatest personal treasure—a souvenir sovereign.

Last week a man walked into the office of the Minister of Commerce (Senator McLeay) and said, "Look here, my wife is sick, my only son is in camp, and taxes are going to be steeper than ever, but take this." This was a cheque for £50, payable to the Commonwealth Government.

The will of the late Thomas Henry Firth, of North Melbourne, which was sworn for probate, provided for the residue of his £45,298 estate to go to the Federal Treasurer for defence purposes. The income from £10,000 is left to his widow, and there is another grant of £1000. The will directed that, after the death of his wife, the £10.000 investment should go to the Federal Treasurer for the same ->urpose as tlie residue.