BUY A POPPY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12527, 12 April 1935, Page 5

BUY A POPPY

TO-MORROW’S APPEAL

TO AID EX-SOLDIERS

MOST DESERVING CAUSE

It seems hardly necessary to commend to the public of Gisborne the appeal of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association, in connection with the annual sale of Flanders poppy blooms, the proceeds of which, will help to alleviate distress among a section of th'e. ex-soldiers who ate finding the struggle for existence doubly severe in these .clays. The success of the appeal - should be a foregone conclusion, so long ns it is made sufficiently widely known that tho Poppy Day sales will take place to-morrow, in town and country. go many of the returned men are suffering economically for their service abroad, at: a time of national'peril, that every citizen and country dweller murit feel it a duty to give what aid: he can to such a worthy, cause. Men for whom there is no hope of establishing pensions rights, under existing legislation, are neveVtheleos suffering keenly both in health and m their capacity to find work, froin the effects of war service. The country has done much in the direction of re-establishing returned soldiers in life; measures to which the best thought of Governments has boon given, from time to time, have assisted to facilitate the transition of discharged men from soldiers into civilians. .But there are many veterans whose chances of successful rehabilitation have come to nothing—through no fault either of the national repatriation schemes or of the men themselves — and these men to-day need assistance. Through official channels nothing much can he done for them; hut through the channel provided by the Returned Soldiers’ Association, a great deal may he done.in cheering' on the leos fortunate in the struggle for livelihood and decency, and in holding back from the brink of hopelessness men who have given their whole economic value to the country in one great response to the demand ’made in the war years. For the credit of the community at large, the appeal for contributions to the Pdfrpy fray fund administered by the Gisborne R.S.A. should be a rousing one, sufficient 'to surpass that of any previous year since the wearing of poppy blooms becomes a recognised symbol of sympathy for the cause of the soldiers.