THE QUEEN CARNIVAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume LII, Issue 169, 20 July 1918, Page 5

THE QUEEN CARNIVAL.

[to the editor.]

Sir, —The Women's Executive of the Red Cross and Soldiers' Comfort Fund find that some misapprehension exists in the minds of the public about the Paddy's Market and Queen Carnival shortly to be held in Blenheim. These arc to be run by the Returned Soldiers' Association in order to raise hinds to furnish their recently-acquired club, or hostel. This movement must not be confounded with the somewhat similar methods proposed by the Women's Executive, for an entirely different ■object, namely, the fund for providing our men who are still fighting with special comforts at Christmas time. Unfortunately—and, we feel sure, unwittingly—we have been forestalled by the Returned Soldiers' Association, and while we are anxious and willing to do all wo can for our returned men, we feel it our bounden duty immediately and emphatically to state that we do not consider the time opportune for the small minority of returned soldiers to appeal to the generosity of the Marlborough people for a thousand pounds when, approximately speaking, sixteen hundred of their friends in khaki are urgently in need of comforts, which are in truth necessities. This is a land of sunshine and plenty, land the small batch of returned men ! will no doubt agree with us when we j suggest that their united help would be infinitely better rewarded if they directed their efforts towards ■■ameliorating the lot of the large majority of their fellows who will undoubtedly have to face the rigors of another winter in France and Flanders—they know better than we do what that means—and when they, and the public of Marlborough, realise that the collecting of this thousand pounds at the present juncture means that' their brethren in arms will have so much less in the way of food, clothing, and home comforts when they are hurt or'ill—surely they will divert their efforts towards what we feel to bo the proper channel. At this present moment our funds for the above object are exceedingly low, and money we must have or our men at the front must suffer. We wish it' to be very clearly understood that while we will, at the right time, bo only too glad to join .with our returned men in any of their efforts, we think they might be persuaded to make their own homes and the present club-room suffice for a short spell, in order that the men away—many since the Main Body— may have reason to know that their compatriots here have not forgotten them. At present wo feel we must direct all our efforts to collecting j funds and material gifts for the hospitals and men still away. ! THE WOMEN'S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE