FOR THE WOUNDED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 926, 29 January 1917, Page 9

FOR THE WOUNDED.

WAR CONTINGENT ASSOCIATION. THE WORK DESCRIBED. Prom a Special Correspondent. LONDON, December 18. Perhaps there are 12,000 New Zea-| land troops in England to-day, in- 1 eluding the sick in hospitals and the' fit men and reinforcements in camp, i So it can be imagined the War Con-| tingent Association, which is the ofli-j cial welfare'organisation for the unfit, has its hands full arranging for; the Christmas entertainment of them all. A committee of the association; was set up for the purpose, and it' had no difficulty in one or two cases j in devolving the bulk of the work! on to the local committees, which are more or less permanent bodies.; In some of the camps there arc most; capable committees, whose talent! runs even to the length of panto-1 mime; and where this is so the asso-i ciation merely pays over the per; capita appropriation for Christmas; festivity. Codford, Rrockenhurst, and Walton all come under this head, accounting for perhaps 3500 men. j Hornchurch, the convalescent hospital near London, is in a different category. Until recently there were' many stall' changes here, and there i docs not seem to have been a particularly successful organisation of local talent, so the association has lately paid a great deal of attention to this important camp. It is here j that the committee of which Lady | Hardwicke is chairwoman is devot-1 ing most of its attention. And here, as. elsewhere, a whole, day's enter-j tainment was provided, winding up j with a pantomime in the evening.: The New Zealand soldiers display an I extraordinary amount of talent, and] have astonished British audiences: again and again by providing the) whole of the programme and fitting up the hall and scenery with their] own hands. Miss Rosmary Rees, thej well-known New Zealand actress, isj in general charge of the entertain-j ments for all the camps. Mrs Leslie; Harris and Miss Mackenzie are the other members of the committee. ONE MORI-: DANCE.

The Christmas at the reinforcement camp at Sling is entirely in the hands of the military, but the War Contingent Association has a considerable problem to deal with in the entertainment of the men who happen to be on leave in London, estimates of numbers in war time are rather tricky. Until a late hour it was not known whether the War Oilice would permit leave or not. Then it became quite certain that a few hundred men would be in London at the loose-end, for all the hospitals devote Christmas to entertaining their patients, and rarely receive visitors. A separate committee was accordingly set up (with Mr Moss Davis as chairman) to arrange that Ihcse men should have a Christmas as well as the others. A monster Christmas dinner was decided upon, with a concert in the afternoon, breaking up just about six. But it looked too soft a thing (for the hotels and the harpies) to throw on Ihe dreary streets of London for an idle evening such a swarm of homeless and unoccupied men. It was idle to ignore the possibilities of such an arrangement, and the committee decided that something must be done for the evening, too. Obviously a dance was the best way to pass the evening. Hut what about girls? Strange io say, in these manless days one of the most difficult tasks is to find a sufficiency of girls for soldier dances. There are so few of the fair sex whose time is not fully occupied with war work. But Mrs Empson and some others undertook to lihd partners, and in Ihe week or two before Christinas I Ihev are canvassing every possible New Zealand girl within a radius lof London. The Christmas Day programme has accordingly been extended to keep Ihe men entertained lor the whole evening. WORDS OF APPRECIATION.

Mr Massey an«l Sir Joseph Ward l>;iid :i second visit to the rooms of! Hie War Contingent Association the! oilier <!av at the invitation of Hie executive, to hear a statement on the work and to see something of the system under which il is carried out. The High Commissioner and Mr Andrew fisher (High Commissioner for Australia) were also: present. Cord I'iunkel. who was in the chair, read a brief statement outlining the wide-spreading activities of the association. Mr Massey said he was well aware of the extent and importance of the work, of which he had heard from soldiers both here and in France. On all sides: there was nothing Ltd praise of its!

He promised that he would have printed as a white paper the statement Lord Plunket had read. Sir Joseph Ward spoke in similar terms. He was satisfied the funds at the disposal- of the association were economically managed, and the cost of administration was very moderate. He was sure the Parliament of New Zealand would see that the association got what money it requied. In this connection it may be stated that the whole of the association's visitors—numbering more than 100—are voluntary and practically the whole of the heavy office work is also honorary. As for the completeness of the hospital visiting. Mr Massey was delighted to meet, as far away as Belfast, a lady who on behalf of the association was looking after the few New Zealand wounded in'hospital there. RED CROSS GIFTS.

Since August the New Zealand War Contingent Association has had consigned to it from New Zealand 584 cases of Red Cross goods, which came direct by passenger or cargo steamer, and 5(50 cases by Government transports. Of the former supply 529 cases have already been disposed of either by being sent to various New Zealand Military hos-

pitals or unpacked and distributed' as required; and only 55 cases re-j main in store. The" War Contin-! gent Association has acted as receiv-1 ing and distributing agent for all! these goods, which have been dis- ; posed of after consultation with Miss '' Thurston, the matron-in-chief, N.Z.E.F.

The War Contingent Association is also acting as fairy godmother to the Lady Liverpool Fund gifts, which have lately been arriving in hundreds of. tons. These consignments are all checked and forwarded on, and letters constantly arriving from the units at the front show that they are reaching their destination and are thoroughly appreciated.