QUICK DISPATCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 98, 22 October 1940, Page 10

QUICK DISPATCH

COMFORTS FOR

FORCES

SHIPPING COMPANY'S OFFER

In these days of shipping difficulties an opportunity to send comforts away to the New Zealand forces overseas is one that the national Patriotic Fund Board cannot afford to miss, even though the notice given is short. It was able to make good use of advice that it would be possible to send through Sydney a fresh supply of gift parcels to the First Echelon of the N.Z.E.F. in Egypt when it became known that the original consignment arrived in England with the Second Echelon, and since then, taking advantage of a splendid offer by one of the shipping companies, the board has been able to dispatch Christmas comforts to England for New Zealand soldiers, sailors, airmen, and nurses. Promptaction was required to make this possible, as a recital of the events shows. At 4.45 p.m. one day the officer in charge of the board's goods store in Wellington was advised that one of the overseas shipping companies—these companies are giving valued assistance in the patriotic effort—had made available free to the board some cargo space for comforts in a ship to sail from a certain New Zealand port, but that it would be necessary to have the goods on the way by rail to the port of departure not later than the next evening. It was an opportunity that was too good to miss if it could be avoided, though there was not much time in which to act. The goods store staff got down to the job with a will, and by 4 p.m. the following day, less than 24 hours after the receipt of the advice of the space being available, six railway trucks had! been loaded with 1160 cases of gift i parcels and woollen goods, and all the! necessary consignment papers had been made out. This dispatch was followed. up the next day by 23 more cases,! which were sent by a passenger train, I making a total of 1183 cases, weighing 82 tons. The consignment comprised 1111 cases of parcels, or approximately 8500 parcels, 13 cases of special comforts for the Maori Battalion, three cases of gingernuts, three cases of comforts for the nurses, four cases of tobacco and cigarettes, and 49 cases containing approximately 7000 each of balaclavas, scarves, and pairs of mittens. The cases of tobacco and cigarettes were for the| forestry units and were the gift of the executive of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association (Inc.) and New j Zealand (Timber) Boxmakers' Association {Inc.)* u^ \