GIFTS OF COMFORTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 August 1941, Page 3

GIFTS OF COMFORTS

NAVAL MEN APPRECIATIVE “THEY WARM OUR HE ARTS ' Some indications of the- usefuliu::- of ! [comforts made for members of Hie: j fighting force's is given in a letter re- j ! reived by the secretary of the New j [Zealand Navy League War Council (Mr; R. Darroeh) from a naval man. The' | letter, a copy of which has been rocei\ - jed by the local branch of the League.: reads: You may recall that it was my privilege to thank the ladies of the Navy . !League for their gifts of comforts to j the members of Scheme "B" and "F" ! who left Wellington on the 17th April, j Although at that moment mv know - ; ledge of the contents of those mystori--1 ous blue bags was very vague. I feit that my poor effort was most inadequate. When, on the train, our cnlhu-i : I astic investigation into our wholly unI expected “mystery packets" disclosed a host of well made and thoroughly : useful articles we were all very moved ' by this very splendid gesture and ren- ; lised only too well that our feelings 'would be difficult to put into words, j Apart altogether from the downright j usefulness of these things we were j deeply moved for other reasons. We l could see countless homes all over New IZeiland. some well-to-do and comfort- ; able, and many indeed. poor and j humble. In these homes we saw wilI ling hands busily at work for us. Some ;of them were young and nimble. Others, dear, white, old and withered: working laboriously with the painful handicap of rheumatism. We saw the few odd shillings, in some cases sorely , needed for the knitter’s own personal comfort, dribbling away into the drapers in exchange for good quality wool; all for us We saw acts of perI sonal sacrifice and tireless work going ; eagerly on under the cover of complete anonymity. j The usefulness of the comforts was i demonstrated very early in our trip. The blue bag was used by many as a pillow' in our journev from Wellington j to Auckland. The night was bitterly cold and. believe me. we were glad of. those heavy polo-necked sweaters. ■ Everyone was wearing them. On the ship, in the Pacific, we were in cold weather for a long time and once again | we were delighted with our mits, balaclavas, pullovers and heavy sox. The man who hasn't had frequent use for his hussif just isn’t on this ship. Safety pins and string were at a premium , and were restored carefully to the hussif after being used for hanging out our washing. Now we are in the Atlantic and although it is summer the wind is bitterly cold and the boys when ! on watch have still further reason to be very thankful for their navy woolI ions. Wrapped up in their balaclavas , and scarves with their heavy oilskin i coats and trousers they remind one of j Antarctic explorers. : In my blue bag there is not one thing J that is not very useful to me. This was i everyone's glad discovery. One pair j of sox iii particular nu my lot is the j finest 1 have ever seen. They are grey j and of extremely heavy wool and very j closely and heavily knitted. I am very ! proud ol' them and never tire of proudly exhibiting them. 1 wish I knew • who knitted them. This brings me to i another point. All of us felt so very ; moved by these individual items that | we wanted to personally thank the one j who knitted the article. Consequently J I would suggest that the "manul'ac- : turer’s" name and address be attached , either temporarily or preferably perj manently to each article. This was the case in certain instances and those who I got a little personal message and a ; name and address were “as pleased as 1 Punch." There may possibly be some who are j knitting who w onder w hether their | work is useful. Let me say this—many, j perhaps most of us have received all j sorts of comforts from our own little family circle nevertheless, all of us have found that we can't have too many of the kind of things we found in that very useful little blue bag. The fact that the heavy sweaters being worn at present all came out of the blue bag speaks for itself. Tine Navy League is doing wonderful work and I confess few of us realise just how wonderful. We can see that the women behind your banner are sin- ’ cerelv and genuinely helping us. For them there is no shouting from the house-tops—no fanfare of trumpets—no 1 laudatory congratulations—no spec- ; tacular demonstrations—no social columns in the news, but just plain, honest effort arising out of a sincere desire to , help and not be heard. Their work may not be seen in New Zealand, but. ; believe me, over here it shines brighter than a beacon. We are sincerelv ; grateful to them. Theirs is the real work—the work w r hich warms not only our freezing fingers, cars and toes, but better still our hearts. Please thank them all for us. Mr Darroeh. from the j bottoms of our hearts.