RED CROSS PATRONAGE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 21 January 1930, Page 4

RED CROSS PATRONAGE

ViCE REGAL WITHDRAWAL. SL'GGESTED EXPLANATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Jan. 20.' A Press Association message from Wellington stating that the Governor General and Lady Alice Fergusson had withdrawn their patronage from the organsation operating as the New Zealand branch of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John, has .aused some surprise in Red Cross circles in Dunedin. It is assumed that the withdrawal of Their Excellencies as in the nature of a protest against the stand taken by the society m its long-continued dispute with the St. John Ambulance Association. The association lias always held that the large sum of money received by the society from England should not be under the sole control of the society, but that the association should have a say in its expenditure. The association further claims, that the .society, which was in the first instance a purely wartime organisation, is now usurping the functions of the association in philanthropic activities. It is significant' that the Governor-General, who is also patron of the St. John Ambulance Association, has not so far withdrawn from that body.