15 JANUARY 1960, Page 13

RELIEVING DISTRESS IN ALGERIA

SIR,--May we appeal to your readers for help for hundreds of thousands of Algerians in Algeria whose distress is almost beyond description. 'In one camp,' says Pastor Beaumont, Director of the Protestant Evacuee Committee, 'I saw five children with rickets and others with malaria, for whom there was no quinine, shivering with fever on the ground without blankets. In some camps there were no blankets, in others one between thirteen persons in one tent.' The, , Secretary-General of Secours Catholique says some children are kept alive by lumps of sugar left over after coffee in military messes.

There are about 1,500 Regroupment Camps in which one and a half million Algerians are living, about 60 per cent. of whom are children.

War on Want has established a special fund to aid these Algerians, and undertakes that every penny con- tributed will go direct to their relief. Nothing what- ever. will be spent on expenses, since the officers of War on Want are honorary and all postal and other expenses will be met by members of the Committee personally.

Every ten shillings contributed may save a child from a slow and painful death.

Please send gifts of money, large or small, to the Rt. Hon. Hilary Marquand, MP, Hon. Treasurer, War on Want. 9 Madeley Road, London, W5. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to War on Want and crossed 'Algerian Appeal Fund Account.'—Yours faithfully,

MARK RONHAM CARTER EDWARD ROGERS ANTHONY WEDGWOOD HENN

War on Want, 9 Madeley Road, Ealing, WS