LEPERS’ GIFT TO RED CROSS

Evening Star, Issue 23444, 8 December 1939, Page 6

LEPERS’ GIFT TO RED CROSS

TOKEN OF GRATITUDE TO N.Z. Mr P. J. Twomey, honorary secretary of the Makogai Leper Fund, has received a unanimous request from the 619 lepers at Makogai asking that £IOO of the money collected for them in New Zealand be handed to tho Red Cross as a token of gratitude for What Now Zealand has done to help them. The letter is signed by 12 patients representing the different communities resident on the island. The medical superintendent, Dr C. J. Austin, in forwarding on this request, said: — “ I do not know how you will regard their appeal, but I can assure you the patients will be very disappointed if you turn down their request. They are intensely loyal and are eagerly following the news over the air and in the papers. They are nOw hoping that you will givo them the opportunity of feeling that they are contributing in a small way to the necessities of the Empire, and they would rather join in the New Zealand effort in this direction as a gesture of appreciation of tho generosity of the New Zealand people. I< l do not think that this offer of theirs will prejudice tho success of future appeals—rather the reverse. _ It would bo a very ungenerous criticism to suggest that it is evident that the patients have more money than they need, and I cannot think that your subscribers would object to the patients using the money in this way, or wish to deprive the patients of their happiness and pride at being one with tho New Zealanders in this gift.”