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In response to the readers query about the "cheap-looking" leafless poppy, unlike the deluxe version favoured by TV newsreaders and the like, Alisdair Maclean of the City of Dundee Poppy Appeal Committee responds with reason.

Putting a leaf on the poppies would add 15,000 pounds to Scottish production costs, and the feeling in the Earl Haig Fund Scotland is that the money would be better spent on benevolence.

All Scottish Poppy Appeal administration is covered by income from investments, so the appeal is one of the few that gives 100% of funds raised to those in need. The fund is proud to declare that every penny raised in Scotland is spent in Scotland.

Expenditure for the year 2003 included 105,000 pounds to Hollybush house in Ayrshire for the mentally ill; 34,854 pounds to support the Earl Haig Fund Scotland retirement home in Glasgow; 97,012 pounds to The Royal British legion Scotland Pension Department, which tries itsa hardest to ensure all ex-servicemen and women and their dependants, receive their proper war pensions; and 561,959 pounds to 1474 needy individuals via 100-plus local committees.

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In addition the fund provides free accommodation to organisations like the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association/Forces Help, The Scottish Veterans Garden City Association, Douglas Haig Homes and The Regular Forces Employment Agency.

Last year the sale of poppies in Scotland brought in a total of 1,314,371 pounds, of which 29,204 pounds was contributed by Dundee folk. Over four million poppoes were distributed by the Lady Haig Poppy Factory (211,200 in Dundee), and 60,000 collection tins were issued, including 100 in Dundee to 300-plus locations throughout the city.

In addition many wreaths were sent to units and organisations to place on memorials, as well as wooden crosses to lay at the Graden of Remembrance.

The organisation in Dundee resposible for distributing and selling poppies is The City of Dundee Poppy Appeal Committee - so I have no shame in asking that if you feel you can help this worthy cause, or are willing to give it a go, please give your name and details to Alyson at 2 (City of Dundee) Signal Squadron (Volunteers), Newman House, Mid Craigie Road, Dundee DD4 7RH, Telephone 01382 457049 and we'll see you next year.

(Extract from Craigie, The Courier & Advertiser, Monday November 15, 2004).

The harder it is for the World War Veterans to overcome their infirmities for Remembrance Sunday, the more touching is their salute.

Last week the Caird Hall in Dundee was the scene of the Annual Festival of Remebrance with record attendance. It was as impressive as ever, with the Black Watch in everybody's thought.

Further afield, there are other memorials. At the back of the annual report of the War Graves Commission are a couple of striking statistics - the total of commemorated war dead in two world wars from Britian and the Commonwealth: 1,694,883. Number of unidentified burials - 211,906.

At the Stone of Remembrance in Edinburgh, and in parishes accross the land, quiet crowds paid their homage. At the Cenotaph, the marching columns of young and not so young just went on and on: so many different berets, so many squared shoulders, so many wreaths on the white stone apron, so much to admire.

(Extract from The Courier & Advertiser, Monday, November 15, 2004)