3 FEBRUARY 1900, Page 3

According to the official return published last week, no fewer

than three and a half million natives are already employed on Government famine relief works in India. The magnitude of the calamity by which India is threatened, and its detachment from all connection with the Boer War, has prompted Mr. F. Grenfell Baker, in a communication addressed to the Press, to suggest that such members of the " Peace party" as may be debarred by conscientious scruples from contributing towards any of the various War Funds, should form a representative committee with a view to collecting funds for the starving poor of India.