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•Catholic War Services Committee, the Church of England Military Affairs Committee, the Salvation Army War Services 'Board, and the Y.M.C.A. War Services Committee ■amounted in all to £258,129 ; and advances to the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and New Zealand Red Cross Society for sick and wounded and prisoners of war were £286,115. The following is a summary of the work of the chief expending agents during the year:— (a) Catholic War Services Fund Board: This Board operated seven patriotic recreation huts at the close of the year. The capital value of the huts and furnishings was £10,829, and the number of employees, apart from voluntary workers, was seven. (b) Church of England Military Affairs Committee: At the close of the year this ■organization operated overseas one recreation hut at Base, Middle Bast, three marquees with Chaplains, Middle East, one recreation hut at Norfolk Island (total staff, six), in addition to one representative with the Prisoners of War Organization in England, and in New Zealand five recreation huts and eight Air Force chapels. The staff numbered eleven. (c) Salvation Army War Services Board : The patriotic recreation huts under the charge of the Salvation Army were twenty-seven at the commencement and eight at the close of the year. The number of Salvation Army Welfare Officers employed was fifty-four at the commencement and twelve at the close of the year. The capital value ■of the huts was £7,606 and the equipment in the huts £4,268. (d) Y.M.C.A. War Services Committee: The number of patriotic recreation huts serviced on behalf of the Board at the close of the year was fifty-nine in New Zealand—i.e., thirty-five Air Force, sixteen Army, three Navy, and five hospital'huts. In Egypt the Lowry Hut and Central Hut at Maadi Camp were maintained during the year and the hostel at Alexandria continued in operation. Rest centres and other amenities provided in the Middle East and Italy by this organization as agents of the Board are referred to under " Work Overseas." (e) Navy League War Council: This Council continued its good work in assisting the Board to provide woollen and other comforts for men in the Navy and Merchant Navy in New Zealand and overseas. (/) Overseas Seamen's Gift Committee, Wellington: This Committee, together with & similar Committee in Auckland associated with the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic •Committee, continued to provide personnel on overseas merchant ships with gift parcels, woollen comforts, books, periodicals, and other ship-board amenities, provided principally from Patriotic Funds. (g) New Zealand Lady Galway Patriotic Guild: From the commencement of the war to the end of the year this organization despatched overseas 6,829 cases of reconditioned garments for use in bombed-out areas in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. (h) Air Force Relations : The work of this organization was greatly extended during the year to cope with additional demands for woollens for an expanded Air Force in New Zealand and in other parts of the world. The work is reflected in the return of woollen goods shown later in the report. (i) Sick, Wounded, and Prisoners of War : The gross expenditure of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and New Zealand Red Cross Society as an expending agent of the Board was £339,852 for sick and wounded and prisoners of war. The Government grant for prisoner of war food parcels and packing-expenses was £196,842. The number of prisoners of war to be cared for during the year was approximately eight thousand. Food parcels for these men were packed by public-spirited voluntary women workers who regularly attended the packing-room in Wellington. Each week approximately eight thousand food parcels were packed and despatched. These parcels were added to the International Red Cross pool, and whilst there was no guarantee that New

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