WAR FUNDS.
[To 7HE EDITOR OF .THE " SPECTATOR.") his,—There are many of us who feel like your correspondent "V. W. " a difficulty in choosing between the various funds which clamour for our attention and our alms. For the very rich, who " care uot how they give," it does not matter so much, though even in their case it seems a pity that their subscriptions sown heoadeast should be wasted perchance; but for those who have to he circumspect it is indeed a hard matter to choose between the merits of, says the National Relief Fund, the exactobject of which no one knoweth and whish the Times, at first its staunch supporter, lately called upon to give an account of its stewardship, cr the Timc's own pet fund, which has now reached its five-million pinnacle, and which, however (pace the word "overlapping "), bears a great deal of the burdens which the Government has from the beginning of the war taken, and rightly taken, upon itself—i.e., the care of the sick and wounded—and for which, of course, we have to pay each one his share through taxation. And then again there are the several relief funds for our gallant Allies, some of whom are prevented by the enemy in various ways from benefiting by their distribution. and others, once more be it raid, who are in as good a financial position as ourselves, or even better, and so are at least as able to look after the necessities of the poor and wounded. Perhaps, when one comes to think, there are no charities more in need of further and constant assistance than those, few in number, which quietly and withoirt clamour do their best to provide for our brave and iacreasing multitude of officers' families and dependants for and among whom Lady Lansdowne's Fund has done so much in a thorough
and unostentatious manner.—I am, Sir, lc., A. C. B.
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