THE OFFICERS' FAMILIES FUND.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR."]
8111,—More than two years ago I made an appeal to the public on behalf of the Fund for the relief of families and dependants of officers who have suffered pecuniarily from the war. The response of the public to that appeal has been generous in the extreme. Up to the close of August, 1916, a sum exceeding 0310,000 has been subscribed. A detailed description of the work of the Fund during the two years from August, 1914, to August, 1916, has now been issued. Copies of this are being widely circulated, and are available for any subscriber and others interested in the work, on application to Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square.
During this period grants have been made amounting in all to about .6210,000, and the Committee have given assistance in nearly ten thousand cases. These are drawn from the Navy, the British Armies, Regular, Territorial, and New (including English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh regiments), the Indian Army, and the contingents from the Dominions. The coat of management has been only 1.6 per cent, of the total expenditure. Substantial help has been given to widows and other dependants of officers who have fallen, and assistance has been granted to the families and dependants of officers on service to meet pressing necessities, the expenses of illness, confinements, and other emergencies; large gifts of clothing have been made; houses have been lent, and hospitality extended to wounded and convalescent officers and their families; and assistance has been given towards the educa- tion of close upon five hundred boys and girls. Nothing presses with more cruel weight on parents than the feeling that they, cannot adequately educate their children and equip them for life.
The Committee have always regarded it as one of their most important obligations to assist in order that these children may receive the education they might reasonably have expected but for the war.
Our resources until recently have more than sufficed for our current expenses, but there are now many and urgent reasons for making a fresh appeal to the public for fluids. The claims on the Fund are constantly growing, and current expenditure has in the last three months considerably exceeded donations. These demands must progressively increase, and will be especially urgent during the difficult transition period in the future. Many responsibilities which the Fund has undertaken cannot be abruptly terminated at the close of the war. I feel that I shall not appeal in vain to the public for support to enable the Com- mittee of the Fund to continue and extend the work of endeavouring to relieve the most pressing needs of so many who are sacrificing all for their country.—I sin, Sir, &c., MAUD LANSDOWNI.
[Lady Lansdowne's appeal cannot be allowed to fall unheeded. Though there are so many claims on the attention of the British people, none is more pressing than the claim she advocates so ably, because so simply and with so much reticence. There are no cases more pitiable than those of the widows and orphans of poor officers, for we must remember that at the moment the majority of our officers are poor men.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
