THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1928, Page 2

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

HELP FOR WELSH MINERS. DISTRESS RELIEVED BY GIFTS. (Australian Press Association—United Service.) LONDON, Dec. 24. South: Wales is having a .brighter Christmas than it dared hope for, and thousands of miners' homes will remember with gratitude the 1928 Yuletide. As the result of many agencies working to alleviate misery, the Lord Mayer’s fund sent £45,000 to. be expended chiefly on footwear and warm garments for mothers and children. A Cardiff stockbroker gave £SOO to provide Christmas dinners for the children, and flour and vegetables were widely distributed amongst the miners’ households. The. Miners’ Federation alone has handled 26,100 parcels of gifts from all parts of Britain in the lost three weeks. The Y.M.C.A. is giving special attention to, clothing young miners and securing employment for them in England and overseas.

APPEAL BY PRINCE OF WALES. SPEECH BROADCAST ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. LONDON, Dec. 25 While England was making merry over Christmas to-night the Prince of Woles made a .dramatic radio, appeal on behalf of the millions of sufferers on the coal fields. The Prince painted a dark picture of conditions in the “Black Belt’’ of unemployment. He told of ragged children, hopeless mothers and fathers who. had once been intelligent workers, reduced to. idleness and misery. He then made a personal appeal to all listeners. “Before I go from you to-night,’’ he said, speaking with deep earnestness; “I make one practical suggestion. It is that no Christmas gathering break up without a concrete effort to muster help.’’ The result of the appeal is still unknown, but cheques are already beginning to come in to the Lord Mayor of London.

The Prince arrived in' evening dress, escorted by a few officials of the Radio, Company. He said: “I* wish you all a very happy Christmas evening. I do not appear in the nature of a, wet blanket, but I do ask you to think fox a moment of .the sufferers.’ ’ The Prince of Wales said: “There are a quarter of a. million workless miners, with three times as many dependents, who have been without wages for montiis. Because the distress was concentrated in districts seemingly remote, do. not let us think.at this time of .the year of taking the line, of least resistance and put it out of mind and out of sight. I implore you to think what long anxiety and fear they have undergone, seeing the only trade they know slipping away from them, the spectre of want ever nearing, then actual privation and lastly helpless distress and starvation.’’