CANTEEN PROFITS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17121, 16 April 1921, Page 12

CANTEEN PROFITS.

FOUR MILLIONS STILL HELD BACK. ' ». (prom our own correspondent.) •LONDON, February 24. A further. sum of £2,000,000, representing profits made by the Expeditionary Force Canteens, was last week handed over to Lord Byng, who controls the- United Services' Fund, for the benefit of the men and women who sewed in the war. • Lord Byng lias' now received from the E.F.C. about £4,000,000 out of a total-of £10,000,000. There is definite information ,that £1,000,000 of the remaining £6,000,000 was spent in "comforts" tor the .troops, and that approximately £1,000,000 will, or should, go to the Dominions and India. , ' This leaves the sum of £4,000,000.t0 j be accounted for by the War Office.; It i is an open secret (says a writer in the • "Sunday Times") that the late Navy •and Army Canteen Hoard lost lin enormous amount of money between May, 1919, when it took over the E.F.C- business,, and December 3lst, 1920, when it was succeeded by tlie Navy, J#ny, and Air Force Institutes. The" losses are said to : bo about £2,000,000. An attempt will be made to cover this deficiency with the E.F.C. money, on the ground that it was part,'of the agreement when the transfer took place. The actual . agreement was that the N. A.C.B. should return to the E.F.C. all surplus stores within "three months of transfer, and that .the E.F.C. should pay fox losses sustained if the armies were called homo before thf) end of that period. The armies did not come homo, and the return of stbres and financial transactions with the E.F.C. did not cease for more than a year afterwards. No reports of losses by N.A.C.B. were made to E.F.C., and so it is claimed that whatever losses' have been incurred during the time which lias elapsed cannot. fairly be charged to the E.F.C. account. .• The whereabouts of the remaining £2,000,000 is a mystery. Presumably it is retained as working capital of the newly-constituted Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes.