REFUGEE CLOTHING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 47, 25 February 1941, Page 7

REFUGEE CLOTHING

WORK OF LADY GALWAY GUILD LETTER OF GRATITUDft FROM ffNGLAND. At a meeting of the Lady Gayway Guild a letter was read by Mrs. C. R. White (secretary) from headquarters in Wellington pointing out the necessity of carrying on the work of the Guild, althougn goods cannot at present be sent overseas. Tne letter says: "Although shipping space is not available at the moment, guilds are specially requested to carry on the work of the guild because the need of those in the Motherland is still urgent and will be more so with the approach of the next winter season in the northern hemisphere. In the meantime, however, all guilds are asked not to send their contributions forward, but to retain same until advice is received from Guild Headquarters that space is available. By co-operating in this way, the problem of storage of the shipping centres will be solved."

Further letters from the Dowager Marchioness of Reading, chairman of the Women’s Voluntary Services, London, have been received by the headquarters of the Lady Galway Patriotic Guild, Wellington, regarding the arrival of shipments of clothing, footwear and bedding from New Zealand, and extracts will be of interest to members of the Guild:—

“We have just received notification of a further shipment of refugee clothing, and I cannot tell you how very much your gifts are appreciated, but from the news you are receiving of the bombing which is taking place, you will be able to understand how every item of warm clothing is of incalculable value to-day. In one of the regions adjoining the London area, to which so many homeless people have been sent during the last few weeks, the news of the arrival of a consignment was so gladly received that the Regional Commissioner immediately sent lorries to the docks to collect the cases which had been allocated to them.” I think you will be interested to read an extract of letter from one of our Regional Officers: — “ ‘We are delighted with the consignments we have received of clothes from New Zealand. They are secondhand but of such good quality. We filled the utility van with a load of these clothes yesterday and sent it to an area, where help was urgently needed after two bad air raids. The centre telephoned this morning to say that the clothes are exactly what was needed.’ Lady Reading also writes, “Before the official machinery can take care Of people who have lost all they possess, there is a short period during which they are in need of warm clothing, and it is to fulfil this need that the W.V.S. is spending so much of its energies. Gifts from the Lady Galway Patriotic Guild and from other sources make this possible. It is difficult to find words to express our apprecation of your gifts.” A letter dated October 29, 19b0, has been received from Mr. W. J. Jordan, High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, which reads:— “Now that considerable shipments of refugee clothing have arrived and have been distributed I am able to give you a more complete account of how de deal with these consignments. “The distributioi of these goods is being attended to by the Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence who have a clothing depot in London and others in most of the main centres throughout the country. In addition, this body works in co-operation with the Refugees National Committees, the Save the Children Fund, the British Red Cross Society, etc. “Each shipment is taken over by the Women's Voluntary Services at the port of discharge, and is distributed to the nearest centre which is in need of clothing. In one instance special lorries were sent to collect an allocation whick was urgently required. “You may rest assured that the great work of the Lady Galway Patriotic Guild is helping to satisfy one of the greatest needs of our people here. The large consignments are a tribute to the patriotism of the people pf the Dominion, and I can assure you there is no likelihood of a lack of grateful recipients.”