A.I.F. ASSOCIATION

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 18

A.I.F. ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL MEETING The annual meeting of the Australian Imperial Forces Association of Dunedin was held on Thursday, Mr W. H. Thomson (president) being in the chair. The report and balance sheet for the past year, presented by the secretary and treasurer (Mr 11. C. Connell), were adopted, the President stating that on account of a good deal of unforscen expenditure during the year it had been necessary to draw on the balance carried forward from last year. During the period) under review the association had taken part in the services connected with Anzac pay and the South African Veterans’ Association, and for the first time in Dunedin a dawn service had been arranged and conducted by the association at daybreak on Anzac Day on tho lines of similar services conducted in Australia for some years past. The attendance of ex-servicemen and the public at this service had been a large one, being gratifying to the members of the A.T.F . showing as it did a desire on the part of residents to pay homage to those who took part in the landing at Gallipoli. In view of this the decision which had been made last Anzac Day to conduct similar services in the future was confirmed, and arrangements would be taken in hand to ensure a larger attendance this year, at which service the association’s Bising Sun wreath will be laid on tho memorial. The association was represented at the annual gatherings of several of its brother ex-servicemen, and, ns usual, a wreath was placed on the memorial at the annual service of the South African Veterans’ Association. The Australian stall for tho disposal of badges in connection with tho Poppy Day appeal was conducted at the Octagon by the wives

of members, adding appreciably to the day’s receipts. Disappointment was expressed at the refusal of the Minister of Internal Affairs to make a grant to the association for the temporary assistance of distressed members from the profits of the art. union on the grounds that it had been decided not to make grants to individual bodies, although both before and subsequent to the application being made similar grants had been made to other ex-servicemen’s associations.

Tho President intimated that one member of the association, Mr 11. Bnr-foi-d, who in the last war had been a member of the Royal Australian Navy, hud enlisted again, and was now overseas with the first echelon of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Before his departure, opportunity bail been taken of expressing to him the hearty good wishes of his fellow-mem-bers for his safe return. A presentation of a wallet with the badge of the Rising Sun engraved bad also been made to him. The annual reunion social would be held in the evening of Anzac Day, and a further meeting held! to arrange details. The reappointment of Mr W. H. Thomson to the position of president was agreed to unanimously, as was that of tho vice-president. Mr W. D. Young, and the secretary, Mr Connell.