PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 3

PATRIOTIC FUNDS

HOW THE MONEY IS USED PROVISION OF COLLECTIVE COMFORTS " There is a grave misconception of our work on the part of some members of the public,” said Mr J. W. Dove,-at'a meeting of tile executive of the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council yesterday, when he suggested that considerable good would result if copies of the information slip which is to be included in overseas parcels were distributed in factories, workshops, and foundries. The slip, which is intended as a message to the soldiers overseas, informs them that the patriotic effort is the co-ordination of the activities of the societies which in the last war catered for the comforts of the troops. It had never been intended that patriotic funds were for the purpose of supplying individual comforts. The policy had been to supply collective comforts, such as recreation huts, clubs, bands, kjnemas, mobile canteens, subsidies to regimental funds, sports gear, libraries, writing paper, and similar amenities. The parcels scheme, the statement' continues, was inaugurated with the idea of enabling every man overseas to receive a parcel from the people of New -Zealand. Originally these parcels contained cigarettes, but now cigarettes were sent separately. An endeavour was made to give each man overseas a patriotic parcel once every three months. Of the £BOO,OOO which was paid into the National Patriotic Fund Board last year, the main items of expenditure were as follows Prisoners of war comforts, £171,000; sick and wounded comforts, including grants to the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and New Zealand Red Cross Society, £101,286; comforts for troops overseas and in New Zealand, including grants to the Y.M.C.A., Church Army, Salvation Army, Catholic War Services' Fund Board, Navy League War Council, Air Force Relations, and Overseas Seamen's Gift Committees, £483,336. Mr Dove’s proposal that copies of this pamphlet should be distributed locally was adopted, and the suggestion of Mr Edgar Hazlett that the council’s stamp should be placed on Otago parcels was also approved.