GIFTS FOR THE FRONT

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 52

GIFTS FOR THE FRONT

PARCELS FOR THE DARDANELLES (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 10.

Recently Miss Hilda Williams (late of Wellington and Auckland) received from a friend in New Zealand the sum of £IOO to be expended on providing comforts for New Zealanders at the Dardanelles. This sum w'as quickly used up, for within a week of its receipt no fewer than 650 parcels had been packed and shipped through the good offices of the Queen Alexandra Field Force Fund, packing and shipping being free. Inside each parcel was the name of the person who sent the money, and each parcel contained pepperments in tin, a wallet of stationery with pencil, a packet of sanitary paper, tin of coffee and milk, some ointment to deal with the insect plague, tooth-brush, toothpaste, cap-flap for the sun, pipe, tobacco, and cigarettes. In some parcels there were put three 2oz tins of tobacco, a pipe, and cigarette papers; in some, one tin of 50 cigarettes, one 2oz tin of tobacco, and cigarette papers. The Queen Alexandra Field Force Fund is very anxious to continue to pack parcels for New Zealanders, and it is a point worth remembering that things can be bought at wholesale prices in England for less money than in New Zealand, so that any people in New Zealand who are desirous of giving contributions of money can send it to Miss Williams, who is a member of the Visiting Committee of the New Zealand War Contingent Association. There are regulations as to the size of packages, and practised hands can best deal with them. It is possible for 12,000 parcels' to bo dealt with in a fortnight. Tho fund did all the packing for Lady Hamilton, whose appeal resulted in a short time in the receipt of £20,000, to be expended on comforts for the men at the Dardanelles—a sum raised on the direct appeal of Sir lan Hamilton, whose men were receiving nothing at all in the nature of luxuries.

NEW ZEALANDER’S APPEAL,

Writing to his sister in this country, a driver in the New Zealand Field Artillery says he is looking forward to the arrival of a parcel, “as anything is acceptable, such as chocolate, cigarettes, etc. We never get chocolate issued, and cigarettes are very scarce. All the good things which the patriotic funds seem to provide miss us, and have done so from the beginning. Some must have plenty of all these good things, but not us. Why, I cannot tell. And yet we have been close on 12 months on active service and over three months here. The reinforcements which have left New Zealand and Australia since we have been here seem to have received more gift stuff than we have all the while. I fear there is a screw loose somewhere.”