HELP FOR FRENCH SOLDIERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14838, 15 February 1919, Page 7

HELP FOR FRENCH SOLDIERS.

GRACEFUL ACKN OW.LEDGMENT.

Mis Frank Moeller, of Napier, has been one of. the hardest- worked women m Hawke's Bay m gathering meney and creature comforts for the ' boys" at the front and m forwarding from the outbreak of hostilities considerable sums for' the relief of the widows and orphans of French soldiers. She was -specially honored when General Pau asked her tc\ meet him .at Palmerston North, where as head of the Mission he thanked her for her patriotic service. But when he reached Auckland he sent )wr an official letter of thanks, m the course of which he wrote :—

In the name of the braye 1 people of Northern and Eastern Vruvce, m the name of France herself, r rid iv the- name of the "Socifetie de Secours aux Blesses Militairea," of which I am president, and of which cine of my most devoted members (Madame Krug), Lad the privilege of being the distributor of your liberalities m the city of Rheims, I wish again to express to you and to all who collaborated with you our deep gratitude.

I must add, alas, that, m spite of the suspension of hostilities, m spite of peace which looks quite near, the wounds of the war are yet bleeding freely ; and m order to heal them, many years and the continued help of our Allies and friends will be necessary.- The' latest advices which have reached me from the. Society of Help to the Wounded Soldiers (French Red Cross) are heart-breaking. Our funds are exhausted by 4£ years af war, and the cases of misery are becoming move and more numerous and horrible. To the normal services of our hospitals, ambulances, and dispensaries fcur society have had, as at Kerni, to establish different organisations to come to the help of the population evacuated from the invaded countries, nnd to make provision fox the towns, villages, and homes destroyed and devastated. Now we .ire told abont the return of our prisoners from Germany m an indescribable state of physiological misery. More than 100.000 of them are said to be affected by tuberculosis, and. it will .be necessary to erect for them special hospitals m; order t& isolate them and to try £.nd cure them. Then there are the widows and orphans whose fathers have paid for with their lives thei triumphs of the holy cause. Then there are the blind, the paralysed, the men poisoned by gas, etc. Would it, dear madam, be abusing yo,ur charity', which is said to be inexhaustible, to ask you and tne ladies of Hawke's 13ay to continue to take an interest m all these miseries?