Toys made at the Kangaroo Point Military Hospital.
Return of Wounded Soldiers.
Queensland Soldiers’ Sock Fund.
BRANCHES ALL OVER QUEENSLAND.
On April 19th, 1915, a movement was started in Brisbane which has spread throughout the length and breadth of Queensland. It was the Queensland Soldiers’ Sock Fund, and since that date over 45,000 pairs of socks have been sent overseas to the soldiers, and considerably over £1,900 has been collected to buy wool. The depôt is situated in a large room behind the Queensland Foreign Mission Shop in Albert St. one of the Hon. Secretaries and a member of the committee being in attendance every day from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, to distribute wool and receive the knitted socks. Wool is given out to anyone who applies, the condition being that the socks made from such wool be brought into the depôt and sent away with the consignments from the Queensland Soldiers’ Sock Fund. The work has increased considerably, the returns being much greater this year than last year, and the largest number of socks yet sent away by the fund was contained in the last consignment, when 1,697 pairs were sent overseas.
The country branches work with the same enthusiasm as those in and around Brisbane, and parcels arrive daily from all parts of Queensland; between 300 and 400 pairs often being received at the one time. The school children are quite as enthusiastic as the women, and large parcels are sent from both the state and private schools, sums of money also being collected and handed over to the fund to purchase wool.
Every fortnight the socks are packed in cases at the depot and passed on to the Queensland Patriotic Fund, who store them until space is found for transport overseas. There is an ever increasing demand for socks, and the members who have worked so consistently for over two years, never flag in their interest. Apart from the many individual knitters in Brisbane, there are 300 women who contribute regularly to this particular fund, and they are just as keen to make socks to-day as they were two years ago, when the urgent need of socks, and still more socks, was recognised. That need has not lessened, indeed, it has increased.
