THEY DO THEIR “BIT”

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21250, 22 October 1940, Page 3

THEY DO THEIR “BIT”

MAIDEN AUNTS OF BRITAIN The maiden aunts of Britain, too busy now knitting comforts for the troops to worry about vanity, are sending their prize little pieces of jewellery to the Treasury to help along the war effort, states the Daily Herald. A batch, sold at Christie’s, London, recently, made ninety-five lots, not many of which fetched more than a few pounds—but the total was £llsß 14s. A glance at the pieces as they were handed round was sufficient to show whence they had come. This brooch with amethyst in pearl borders was unpinned from a prim lace neckband. (" Your great-aunt I Maisie gave it to me. dear, when she 1 returned from China with her brother.”) That keyless repeating watch in plain gold case, with short gold chain attached was doubtless a legacy from some long-forgotten cousin James. (“ Such a handsome, well-set-up man, and taken so sadly early.”) Then suddenly war came right into even the unpretentious lives of the maiden aunts, who had little to sacrifice, but these gifts, which they sent to the Treasury. The Lords Commissioners saved them up until they had enough to send to the sale room. There the auctioneer—an A.R.P. badge in his buttonhole instead of the famous carnation—put them up for sale, and the dealers bought them. The £llsß 14s they fetched will not go far in modern war. But it will help.