RED CROSS FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6

RED CROSS FINANCE

SURPLUS NEARLY A MILLION AND A HALF. v The outstanding feature of the fourth annual report of the Joint Finance Committee of the British Red Cross Society and tho Order of St. John for tho year ended October 20; 1918,' published recently, is that while it showS a Red Cross expenditure of moro than seven million pounds/ there is an income sufficient ,to leave a handsome margin on tho year's working £ Income 7,425,399 Expenditure 7,213,281 Average weekly expenditure 139,294 A summary of the fund for tho past four years shows:— ' £ s. d. Income .. 15,877,190 13 9i Expenditure 11,422,22 ft 7 4 Surplus £1,454,970 G 51 "Our Day" throughout the war has been a main source of income, and tho unexpectedly magnificent response to the last appea1—£3,520,044, or £942,000 above the total of any previous year—enables tho committee to declare that "the funds wo have in,hand will enable us to meet overy legitimate demand which we can foresee." Management expenses, always tow, were reduced still further, and last year amounted to .only 3d. in the pound on tho total income. Tho great increase in the expenditure in IDIB, more than doublo that for 1917, was duo to the continuous growth of the operations of tho Stores and tho Central Prisoners of War Departments. The latter grew enormously. In 1 February tho average fortnightly expenditure was £50,000; by October tho cost of relief had risen to £123,500 week. Towards the close of the financial year the Red Cross was sending food parcels direct (o 45,000' captive men, and bread, through Berne and Copenhagen, to all prison-j ors in Germany, about 150,000 men.