BELGIAN RELIEF

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2418, 25 March 1915, Page 6

BELGIAN RELIEF

THE PUBLIC SERVICE ACTS A MONTHLY COLLECTION The Departmental Heads Committee, with representatives of tho Public Service Association, have decided: (1) ' That members of tho Public Service be afforded an opportunity of contributing each month to the Belgian Relief Fund; and (2) that the permanent heads continue to act as a committee and to have associated with them Mr. Macdonald (president of the association), Mr. Wright (vice-president), and Mr. Miller (secretary): (3) that the monthly contributions collected from the Public Service be paid into the Public Account to the credit of the Belgian Relief Fund and that the receipts be sent to Hie Treasury." The first collection is to be made at the end of tho current month. As to why the Service should contribute, the journal of the association says:— "Can there be any doubt as to the immediate necessity for help? It is impossible to read the appeal made by the chairmen of the Belgian Relief Committees on behalf of that nation, without being moved to pity by the present condition of those brave and unfortunate people, most of whom are rendered homeless, destitute, and helpless, without being forced to recognise the urgency of their needs. The appeal says: "In Brussels over 200,000 people wait every day in the snow for their bread of tears. In Liege, where six months ago the bravery of a small nation altered the whole complexion of the greatest war in history, 30,000 old men, women and children, and cripples daily line up to get their half-pound of bread and litre of soup, which alone enable them to live. Babies and children are barely being kept alive for want of milk. There are now 1,400,000 people in Belgium, absolutely destitute, and entirely dependent upon tho Commission for the lifo in their harassed bodies. The whole of the 7,000,000 people, rich and poor alike, have to get their pitiful _ allowance of bread from the Commission." What a sad picture the imagination can portray from such facts as these."