A VOLUNTARY FUND FOR OUR PRESENT DISTRESS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of May 2nd, "M. C. M." writes advocating a voluntary fund for the relief of our distress. May I say that I am heartily in agreement with this suggestion ? The idea occurred to me some years ago, and all those of my countrymen with whom I have spoken upon the subject are of the opinion that it is an excellent scheme. If a committee could be formed upon the lines suggested by your correspondent, and if our Press would wholeheartedly co-operate to make the appeal world-wide to all English, Scotch, and loyal Irish men and women at home and abroad to contribute voluntarily to the full extent of their ability, I feel convinced that the response would be astonishing, but I think it would be better that the " Fund " should be given a definite objective, say, for example, the cancellation, entire or partial, of our debt to the United States of America, our Government undertaking at the same time that any economy that might be thus effected in the annual service of the said Debt should be reflected in a corresponding reduction in the Income Tax. If this idea could be carried to a successful issue it would be a magnificent achievement, and surely the present critical condition of our trade and indus- tries fully warrants a supreme national effort to retrieve the
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