BELGIAN RELIEF FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2950, 9 December 1916, Page 3

BELGIAN RELIEF FUNDS

THEIR DISmiBUTION. . Vi'e have to acknowledge receipt from the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. Gr. W. Russell, a copy of the first annual report! of tho Commission for Relief in Belgium.. 1 Mr. Russell's covering letter is of such general interest that we reproduce it in full as follows: Office of the Minister of Internal Affairs.' Wellington, December 6, 1916. Sir, —With previous letters 1 have enclosed pamphlets issued by . the British National Committeo for Reiief in Belgium in which frequent reference is made to tho work of tho Neutral Commission. 1 now forward for your information a copy of Part I of the -First- Annual Report of the Neutral Commission itself.

This valuable document, more than anything previously published, explains tho constitution, the working, and the success of the Neutral Commission, and the statistics given are a sweeping vindication of the Commission agaiiist the charges that relief goods do not reach 1 the' Belgian?. .... ' . , . It should not be lost sight of that the Commission's work is not merely relief of the Belgian destitute, great and noble as that task is. Its first concern- is the provisioning of Belgium, the most highly industrialised country in Europe, with a normal population of 652 per square mile. Belgium, for all its intensive agriculture, depends, even in peace time, on foreign countries for the bulk of its foodstuffs. The occupation of her territory by an enemy who refused to support the civil population meant, therefore, not merely deprivation, but actual starvation for all but the wealthy (if indeed such a thing as wealth could exist under 6uch circumstances), unless some organisation could be brought into existence to copo with the task of obtaining and distributing foodstuffs to 9,500,000 people. The sheer impossibility of this being done by the Entente Allies gave birth to the Neutral Commission. How that body faced difficulties, for the solution of which there was no precedent, not only overcame them all in an incredibly short space of time, but created machinery for the supply from abroad and distribution with in' tho invaded territory of sufficient, foodstuffs to keep the population alive, and at the samo time was able to account for almost every pound of food through every stago of its progress from' country of origin to final,distribution, is a tale so wonderful as to bo incrediblo but for the living evidence 'of its'truthfulness. That it should have achieved sujh results has earned for the Commission the just tribute of being a miraclc of organisation; that it should have carried out its operations in the midst of the army of occupation to the satisfaction of the Entente" Allies, and not only without the active opposition of the Germans, but without raising a glimmer of suspicion, is an undying tribute to its honour. *-

The Provisioning Department is a vast trading concern in which the shareholders are the destitute of Belgium and Northern France; that is to say, those who are able to buy their food, and the proiits from the business go to the Benevolent Department for tho relief of those who are destitute, and it is these latter for whom tho voluntary funds throughout the British' Umpire are raised. .

So sound has been the business work; ing of the Provisioning Department, .so ready tho assistance given by the Allied Governments and Allied' and neutral business, banking and commercial lirms, transportation agencies, and local committees, that the price at which many foodstuffs have been, sold at a profit is less. than the price in England and Holland.

It must not he. imagined from this, however, that tho Neutral Commission can carry on without further large voluntary contributions. A perusal of the report shows that the standard of relief given, in accordanco with the means at the disposal of the Commission, is the minimum ration that .will suffice to keep the recipient alive. Any falling, off in the voluntary-contributions will thus tend to reduce the relief, to such a point as to render it insufficient to prevent starvation.. I have tho honour to be, sir, Your obedient servant, G. W. RUSSELL, Minister of Internal Affairs.