BELGIAN RELIEF.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 April 1916, Page 5

BELGIAN RELIEF.

A MARVEL OF EFFICIENCY, .

Only the larger issues of this «rnj[ ■■ v have prevented Americans itqm kiow* ■< \] ing more about the commission of n* '. liof in Belgium, our own most imporU , -.•', unt part, so far, in Armageddon (write! W. Irwin in the- New York Herald). An aeroplane fight is more interesting ' than an operation in high finance, an<s . t a battle always draws more attention] ■_;* than a social movement. *v Few, I suppose, really, understand ' - that a group of Americans is running in, i t war-torn Europe the greatest charitaWa undertaking the world ever saw. LoMi '", Ciirzon, member of the British Cabinet, said that hitherto relief on a large scale had been synonymous with incompet- '' cuce or corruption, or both, but for the livst time the work had bees done witii absolute economy and efficiency.

Small overhead expense

It has been a miracle of organisation* ' less than 1 per cent, of the money ha* . > gone for "overhead" expenses. Vint. such as Hoover, the chairman, and, Bates, until recently American chair* man, have let world-wide personal ln« terests go to pot in order to work witlw out salary for the commission. > It has been a miracle of speed. ' }'• Less than, three weeks after the «a]l .;«' came the commission had begun to CU.t : '.,, red tape and was pouring a stream oj ..(■ wheat into Belgium. • •' '{ It has been a miracle of diplomacy. /,..-.>, The commissioners have beon waikbjg . ' a tight wire between the conflicting . . hatreds and suspicions of three warring ' j' l Powers. ~'-£J[ Wo havo thirty young Americans ' ,""3j running food districts in Belgium. They -"^ live in the midst of pathos and hunur ■ ;'.;, and even personal danger, but thtyj i.J cannot write about it, because they art ( 'J pledged to hold their tongues and ptdUf •' i about their experiences in Belgium. ~ fi PROBLEM IS COMPLEX.- " > .'■">! The problem is complex. The ac f tl*% '-i executives of the commission are VfrN•" '[\i unteers. Most of the underlings'*!* |;j ■working for bare expenses. In snt. i sense it is all charity. In another unsa ' it is not. The commission found that , "V» ,9,000,000 people could not be fef *w , .\\ certainty by the charity of the WW 'k, ' Ways were found to hypothecajbe B|I«'. ; ; -K| gian property; paper currency was j»» .'-'| sued; those who had anything left **»' A'jfc enabled to pay their way. There iff ;f, mained, however, 2,000,000 or 3,000,00 f t, •*J factory operatives who had been out of ; >fe work since the war began and who h*4. ;f| nothing at all. Tim outside world nka, .:■ | been obliged to pay for feeding them. ''sv I wish I might say that America Ml .M done most of this, but I cannot. Up to X'.f October last we had ghjen only seven. ' ..■£ cents per capita, whereas New Zealejrt' .'..Us had given 1.25d0l per capita. t . ' ■" -A