RED CROSS FUNDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 254, 27 October 1939, Page 3

RED CROSS FUNDS

ROT BEING TAKEN OVER BY GOVERNMENT ’IIMSTEKS- DEMAI.. (Per Pres» A.iaociatiotiJ WELLINGTON, Oct. 25. • An emphatic denial that the Government was taking over the Red ! Cross organisation and funds in Nhw Zealand given by Hon. W. Parry in an , interview, when a rumour to that eii feet was referred Io him. I The Minister said there was absoi lutely nothing in lhe allegation. He [added that lhe Red Cross was a per- : manent body v. hith had existed for ' years and which would continue to I exist long after the present war. In so far as it was administering in conjunction with the Order of St. John a large war fund raised during lhe last war, lhe Patriotic Purposes Emergency Regulations had no application io it and that fund was still governed by lhe War Funds Ad, 1915. With regard to its activities in the present war, the society was like every other body in New Zealand— subject io the regulations, and he had not the slightest doubt that, full use would be made of lhe magnificent organisation of this and other bodies. ‘This gives me an opporlunity," Mr. Parry continued, "of giving an emphatic denial Io the allegations that lhe the Government was taking charge of the patriotic funds. The National Patriotic Fund Board and lhe provincial patriotic councils are entirely autonomous bodies. each owning and controlling its own fund." The inaugural meeting of lhe National Patriotic Council set up under the Patriotic Purposes Emergency Regulations in connection with the administration of patriotic funds, was held to-dav.