THE RED CROSS BUDGET

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2704, 25 February 1916, Page 3

THE RED CROSS BUDGET

The British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, have just issued their report and • balancesheet for the year ended October 20 last, states an English paper. Some extremely interesting figures, showing the national work the society is accomplishing and the generous response of the British public to its funds are contained in the report. The total income for the year is given at £1,864,000 and the expenditure at £1,042,000. Of the latter sum £463,000 was spent on hospital stores, etc., £293,000 in Prance and Flanders (exclusive of motor ambulances), and £016,000 on "transport of wounded," the balance being disbursed on various hospitals in England and Franco and on the expeditionary forces in Egypt,- the Near East (mainly Gallipoli) and elsewhere. The societies have nearly 900 ambulances at work and a total number of vehicles, including touring cars, lorries, repair wagons, etc., of no fewer than 1300 vehicles, a figure which affords some rough idea of the extent of the work done. The management expenses at home and abroad amounted to £73,000, and on this point the report says:—lt now remains to consider the crucial question .of "management expenses." The joint finance committee are'explicit on this point. They write: "The management expenses (including the cost of receiving, handling, distributing and recording at head office of the whole of the funds received by the joint committee) would amount to £21,221 6s. 3d., representing 13 per cent., or 2jjd. in the £ on the whole of the income, or if wo add the cost of appeals' (£6137 os. lid.) 1.46 per cent., or 3kl. in the £. 'Jliese figures we regard as eminently satisfactory. ':• That they should be so low is due largely to the fact that so many of our workers are unpaid. Wo have no head of a department in receipt of a salary." Another cause of the low proportion is the practical absence of the items, "Rent, rates, etc.," thanks to the generosity of friends. In the stores department, thanks to the devoted labours of voluntary workers, the expenses rose no higher than 2.96 per' cent, of the value of goods handled. .The report concludes with a warm acknowledgment of the committee's obligation "to all who have enabled the work to lie carried on, whether by their gifts or by their personal service, orby both,"