RED GROSS AND ST. JOHN DISPUTE

Evening Star, Issue 20089, 1 February 1929, Page 8

RED GROSS AND ST. JOHN DISPUTE

£54,560 FOR POST-WAR WORK WHOSE IS IT ? SIR JOHN HEWITT APPEALS FOR AMITY. [Per United Press Association,] WELLINGTON, February 1. Sir John Hewitt, who is the head of the delegation at present visiting New Zealand, makes an appeal to the dominion to devise a reasonable way of spending the balance of the joint fund of the Red Cross Society an.d the Order of St. John, which is available for post-war activities. After the war there was a largo sum in hand, and £54,500 was allocated to New Zealand. It was given to the body mentioned above, but a dispute arose, the Red Cross contending that the money belonged to the British Red Cross Society, and that the Order of St. John had no interest in it.

Sir John Hewitt considers this contention ill founded. In 1926 it was proposed that a joint committee be set up to deal with the money. He strongly supports this, and says it is inconceivable to him that a body of reasonable men should be unable to settle the matter, which is one of urgency.

A DUNEDIN OPINION EQUAL SHARES CLAIMED AMICABLE SETTLEMENT LIKELY. “It has always been maintained by the St. John Ambulance Association that the sum of £54,500 which was forwarded to New Zealand through Lord Liverpool was for the use equally of the St. John Ambulance Association and the Red Cross Society,” said Mr J. J. Clark, president of the local centre of the St. John Ambulance Association, when the dispute regarding the subject was brought under his notice this morning. “ The Red Cross Society, however, has maintained that the money was the property of the New Zealand branch of the Red Cross Society, and that it ought to be used by it for peace-time activities. On the evidence that _wo have received from London,” claimed Mr Clark, “ and tho copies of the agreements made between the headquarters of the two societies, it seems quite clear to us that it was a joint fund, available for both societies for peace-time activities. “ Several conferences have been held between tho headquarters of the, two societies in Wellington,” continued Mr Clark, “ but no satisfactory arrangement has been arrived at. It is believed, however, that the visit of Sir John Prescott Hewitt will have beneficial results and that an amicable agreement, satisfactory to both parties, will be arrived at before tong.”