SOLDIER’S MISAPPREHENSION

Evening Star, Issue 23908, 11 June 1941, Page 12

SOLDIER’S MISAPPREHENSION

INSTITUTION BENEFITS GOME FROM PEOPLE S SUBSCRIPTIONS (,IkA.) WELLINGTON, June U). The value of subsidies from tbe National Patriotic Fund to regimental funds was emphasised by Brigadier J. [largest, who left New Zealand in command of the Second Echelon, in a notice posted for the information ol his troops, a copy of which has been received in the Dominion. The notice set out the many ways in which the men of the forces, although not always realised by them, were receiving benefit from the lands subscribed on their behalf by the people. Its main object appears to have been to correct an impression which existed among some men invalided back to New Zealand earlier that the moneys raised were not being disbursed for their benefit, and to make known to them the fact that the benefactions they had received from various institutions and clubs had been made possible through funds subscribed by the New Zealand public and made available through the National Patriotic Fund Board. All societies and clubs had done and were doing a lot of good work, stated Brigadier Hardest, and they merited praise; but in reality almost every penny spent on the soldier’s entertainment and on his comfort was found from the patriotic fund. When, for example, the Y.AI.C.A. gave a tea to the troops overseas or a unit padre handed out a packet of cigarettes, the money to purchase them had been subscribed by the public of New Zealand and paid into the_ Patriotic Fund Board, which authorised the Y.M.C.A. or the padre to spend the money. Without subscription in the first place and the authority of the board a gift could not be forthcoming.