TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS.
Sir, – I would like to make an appeal through the columns of your paper on behalf of a consumptive widower at the Greenvale Sanatorium. Briefly the facts are: – He is a man of about 50 years, with three children (girls, 9-16). A printer by trade, he has worked in the newspaper offices both here and in New Zealand. He was rejected three times for enlistment in the A.I.F. (defective teeth, impaired constitution, apparently over age), but eventually went to Adelaide and was accepted there. He got as far as France (sapper in 2nd Tuneling Coy.), and after 575 days’ service from date of enlistment he was discharged as medically unfit, a tubercular patient, after having been in three different hospitals. He has had to part with his watch, chain, and overcoat, and even his child’s bangle to meet expenses. He has tried hard work, his discharge (in my possession) testifying that he has lost his positions entirely through ill-health, and is unable to take on anything except light work.
I am convinced, after due inquiry, that the case is a deserving one. The object in view is to place him in a position to rear poultry and pigs, and conduct a small fruit and tea room, cigarettes, tobacco, &c., a business for which there is an opening in this part of the parish, owing to its proximity to the institution, and being a boon to the visitors. The amount necessary for this, for furniture, and to recover his pledged property, is about £120. I shall be pleased to furnish additional particulars. The patients are only allowed to stay three months in the sanatorium, consequently immediate assistance is necessary. Would you kindly receive and acknowledge subscriptions? – Yours, &c.,
(Rev.) G. W. RATTEN.
The Vicarage, Broadmeadows.
[We shall be glad to acknowledge subscriptions to this fund. – Ed. “A.”]
Source: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic); Thu 21 Oct 1920 (Page 6)
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4576365
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