SILVER THIMBLE FUND

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 78, 28 September 1940, Page 17

SILVER THIMBLE FUND

APPEAL TO AUSTRALIAN GENEROSITY

Through its vice-president, Lady Braid Taylor, the Silver Thimble Fund, to aid sick and wounded soldiers, has appealed from London for the opening of a branch of the fund in Australia, states the "Sydney Sun." The fund's goal is £100,000, with which to provide flying ambulances, mobile field hospitals, and X-ray apparatus, to help sick and wounded j soldiers. Some months ago Lady Taylor offered to sell, "lock, stock, and barrel," the contents of her home for £10,000, with which to buy two flying ambulances. An article relating this generous gesture was published in the "Sun," and is referred to by Lady Taylor in her appeal to Australia. "The response from all over the country and to the 150 depots of the I Silver Thimble Fund has been mag- j nificent," she writes. "No one offered to buy my things. Instead, there has been a steady pouring in of gold and silver." NINE THOUSAND THIMBLES. In eight weeks from the time her offer was made, she states, the fund had been raised from £3400 to £11,000. not including unmelted gold and silver worth £2000. Orders already have been given for two flying ambulances. "More than 9000 silver and gold thimbles have been sent to us," Lady Braid Taylor writes. "The fund was greatly helped by the generosity of Mr. James Dunlop, of Sydney, who immediately cabled £700 towards the ambulances. "Many more silver thimbles are needed to realise the £100,000. There are branches of the fund in America and India, and it is hoped that other branches may be begun in all the Dominions, the Commonwealth, and \ the colonies. "The great generosity of the Australian people has already been seen in this war, their keenness and unstinting help. Is there anyone who

can help us to help our wounded in this way? FORGOTTEN TREASURE. "It is not an appeal to the already highly-taxed pockets of the public. It is more in the nature of an appeal for your unwanted treasures. There must be in everybody's home useless, unwanted, and perhaps forgotten oddments and trinkets hidden away in boxes, treasure chests, trunks, box-. rooms, and perhaps, banks. "If anyone is willing and kind enough to organise a similar fund for us in Australia, will they kindly write to Lady James Braid Taylor, 16 Linton Road, Oxford, England."