SUCCOUR AFTER DISASTER

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 4

SUCCOUR AFTER DISASTER

RADIO EMERGENCY CORPS VALUE ILLUSTRATED LAST WEEK. APPEAL FOR EQUIPMENT FUND. The tragedy of last week in which two lives were lost as a result of an aeroplane crash at the foot of Mt. Egmont was such a shock to the community that first thoughts at the present time are ones of sympathy with the relatives of the victims in their _ deep loss. A dispassionate consideration of events, however, emphasises the community responsibility in cases such as this, and from what actually took place last week several significant facts emerge. Broadly speaking, whereas such accidents, and indeed most major disasters, are not the fault of the community, it is a community duty to do all that is possible after the event to provide assistance that is necessary. In the case of individual disaster search parties are often required for a task of considerable magnitude requiring careful organisation, and in the case of national disaster measures of even greater magnitude may be necessary. In either case an organised and highly efficient system of communication is essential if lives already in jeopardy are to be saved and others prevented from being lost. Only too often, in the attempts to succour someone in distress, lives have been, lost through lack of proper communication between those engaged in rendering assistance. The nucleus of an organisation formed for the purpose of providing this means of communication already exists, and for the first time in Taranaki applied its labour to practical use last Friday. It is the Radio Emergency Corps. So apparent is the need for such an organisation and so important its potential value in disasters that unfortunately will periodically occur in the future as they have in the past, that the Taranaki Daily News this morning launches an earnest appeal to provide an equipment fund for the Taranaki section of the Radio Emergency Corps. The corps was formed about two years ago solely for the purpose of giving national service in time of disaster, and has already done excellent preparatory work on a national scale. Members of the organisation give freely of their time and labour in practice work, but are severely handicapped for lack of equipment such as portable transmitters and receivers. If the equipment is provided the members of the organisation, which is an entirely voluntary one, will do the rest. Who knows but that it may easily be one’s .own son or daughter, brother or sister,' who one day will be maimed or lost in the gorges of Mt. Egmont or in the bush that abounds, ever inviting and ever threatening, throughout a large part of Taranaki? Nor are these by any means the only contingencies in which the Taranaki section of the Radio Emergency Corps may be the means of saving lives. It is hoped that the public will generously slipport this appeal, and the Taranaki Daily News gladly sets the ball rolling with a donation. Further donations will be accepted at offices of the paper at New Plymouth, Stratford or Hawera, and acknowledged in these columns, and steps will be taken to ensure that* the fund iyill be applied solely to the purpose for which it is inaugurated—the provision of equipment for the Taranaki section of the corps. RADIO EMERGENCY CORPS FUND. £ s. d. Taranaki Daily News 1 1 0