MEANING OF DISTRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23995, 19 June 1941, Page 11

MEANING OF DISTRESS

USE OF PATRIOTIC FUNDS "The general impression with regard to the administration of the Sick and Wounded and Distressed I'utid is that the moaning ot 'distressed' has been interfered with," said Cation R. G. Coats, at a meeting of the Auckland Provincial Joint Committee of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society last night. "There is so much uneasiness in the minds of the people that the £1.000.000 aimed at, which should have been received in a week, is not coming in. People think that wo are not straight with them." Reporting earlier in the discussion, Major J. Abel. Dominion treasurer, said that Auckland was the only province where money from the fund had been spent on the relief of economic distress. Some people extended tho meaning of "distressed" in tho name of the fund to include the wives and children of men in the forces, which was never tho intention. "Distressed" had been put in as part of tho appeal slogan, and it had been one of their greatest worries from that day. As a member of the National Patriotic Council, he know that the Auckland committee had been spending money from the fund on the work of the provincial patriotic council. "There was never any suggestion of changing the name of tho fund," Major Abel continued.

Mr. K. L. Usmar, secretary of the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic Committee, said the Dominion council had first approached the National Fund Board to have economic relief of soldiers' dependants made ft charge on the provincial patriotic councils. The name of the sick and wounded fund was never mentioned in the discussions. They also urgently wanted a definition of the word "comforts," which most, people apparently took to mean no more than cigarettes and tobacco. Major Abel said that nf the £IOO,OOO sent to Great Britain for the relief of distress. £67.000 came from the provincial patriotic councils.