TROOP COMFORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 63, 14 March 1940, Page 6

TROOP COMFORTS

"EXCELLENT GOODS"

A GREAT NEED FULFILLED

GIFTS OF GAMES WANTED

The special committee of the National Patriotic Fund Board, which attends to the purchases of goods for the fighting-forces, is now engaged in buying comforts and attending to the provision of games for the benefit of the men of the Second Echelon. In, additon to the experience. gained in making similar arrangements for the welfare of the First Echelon, the committee has the benefit of suggestions which have been received from the three V.M.C.A. officers who accompanied the men. One of them, Mr. Victor C. Jones, who was secretary of the V.M.C.A., Wellington, wrote recently to the secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board. "It is the consensus of opinion of our secretaries," he stated, "that the goods placed aboard the ship were excellent and fulfilled a very great need." Mr. Jones is the representative of the board in the Middle East. At the same time Mr. Jones had a number of valuable suggestions to make, and these will be helpful to the board. • For example, ,he dealt with the quantity of cigarettes to be placed at the disposal of the gift officer acting for the board on each.ship and the type of prizes which in his opinion should be provided for the winning of sports contests. He suggested the provision of medals for boxing and wrestling contests, besides durable goods, which would add value to a man's personal kit. Mr. Jones asks for more library books to be sent at regular intervals, and also for the inclusion, in addition to the regular" comforts sent by the board, goods such as toilet articles for use by men in hospital; in fact, any goods that would contribute to the comfort of men in hospital. HOSPITAL COMFORTS. The provision of hospital comforts is work which is being carried out by the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society, and it is a task which these two worldfamed organisations have undertaken with a wUi. As a result of the assistance given by the State Country Library Service, librarians generally, and the co-opera-tion of the general public in response to the appeal made for books before the First Echelon left, the board still has plenty of books available. Ten thousand books were sent away with the First Echelon, and about the same number will leave with the Second Echelon. Some difficulty is being experienced by the board in purchasing games in sufficient quantities for use by the troops on board ship and overseas. In many homes throughout the country thece are probably games like draughts, ludo, darts, and other popular parlour games for which, perhaps, there is no further use. The board will be glad to receive games' of this kind, and also packs of playing cards.