Rehabilitation Fund
pp. 19-20 · Read in the full issue
Distributions NG Club Copes With Complications
DISTRIBUTION of money from their Rehabilitation Fund has caused the New Guinea Women’s Club of Syd ney many headaches in past months.
Started 12 months ago, its original pur nose of rehabilitating ex-POW and civi lian internees was largely nullified by the sinking of the “Montevideo Maru.”
An extraordinary general meeting of the Club was called on April 13 to decide what should be done with the money.
Reports by the Club officials showed that the fund amounted to £1,126/6/1, of which £371/18/2 had been donated by the New Guinea Comforts Fund, and, as such, had “strings tied to it.” The Comforts Find bad been collected for the benefit of Servicemen enlisting from New Guinea or their dependants, and moneys must still be distributed in this way.
The meeting finally decided to treat the sum of £371/18/2 separately, distributing, it among Servicemen or their dependants, and using the remainder of the fund (£754) for the dependants of New Guinea civilians now domiciled in New South Wales.
The whole matter of distribution is complicated by the fact that, to date, it has been impossible for the Club to ob tain a list of Servicemen who enlisted in New Guinea—the Army records branch in Queensland has informed the Club that, in effect, they are too busy to attend to their request at present; and also by the fact that the Club has not yet been in formed by the Home Secretary’s Office whether it will be permitted to carry on as an organisation which is permitted to collect money from the public. If per mission to carry on as a public body is not granted, all moneys held by the or ganisation must be distributed within the next few weeks.
On the advice of a member that all New Guinea Army records were held in Warwick, Queensland, it was decided to send a telegram to Warwick asking again for a list of men who had enlisted in the Territory and in the meantime to dis tribute £5 to each of the 107 NSW eva cuees who were eligible to benefit from the fund.
The president of the Club, Mrs. H. H.
Page, said that £5 these days actually amounted to very little, but it was a gesture and the only means of equitable distribution which could be agreed upon by members* Some of those 107 were not in need of the money, and it was left to them to signify that they did not need it or to return it to the general fund when it would be re-distributed (with the remainder of the fund) to those people with children or who were in greater need.
New Officers Sought
A LARGE proportion of the Club’s exe cutive— who have done a magnifi cent job during the war—now feel that thev would like to retire, and the following have signified their intention of not standing for re-election at the end of the financial year in June: Lady McNicoll, patroness; Mrs. H. H. Page, president: Mrs. C. H. R. Maclean, vice president; Mrs. J. H. McDonald, hon. sec retary; Mrs. H. Adams, hon. treasurer; committee, Mrs. B. G. Edgell, Mrs. J.
Garnsey, Mrs. J. Harding.
Two members of the executive, Mrs. K.
McMullen and Mrs. J. Long, have re
signed, owing to their .return to New Guinea.
Members willing to submit their names for re-election are: Mrs. N. Foxcroft, vice president; and committee members, Mrs.
Allan, Mrs. Wallace Brown, Mrs. Forsyth, Mrs. Haynes, Mrs. Meldrum, Mrs. Ormond.
At the end of the meeting Mrs. Wal lace Brown was elected assistant trea surer. (Final contributions to the Rehabilita tion Fund appear elsewhere, this issue).