Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-05-30
BELGIAN RELIEF
! COMMISSION HAS
SUPPLIES STORED
For First Time, Amount of
FoodStuffS on Hand Is Suf-
fiCient to Assure Plenty
Though Shipments Are Slow

tAssOciated Press Correspondence
London, May y.-The warehouses of
the American commission for the re-
lief of Belgium at Rotterdam and va
rious provincial centers are at last
sufficiently well stocked so that the
commission can stand the shock Of
Interruptions in the receipt of sup
plies without fearing that the Bel
CLANS will starve over night.
One of the hardest problems with
which the commission had TO deal,
was the fact that belligerent nations
refused to permit the purchase with
in their boundaries of foodstuns for
the Belgian sufferers. II was conse-
quently necessary to obtain all the
food overseasA 1t was found that if
purchases We're made in the primary
centers and the most economical
transport undertaken. it was neces-
sarysto have in transit at all times
three months food supply. The com
mission, therefore. manaeed to bor-
row $40, 100000 secured upon the
goods in transit and the members of
the commission pledged their person
al credit for the further communes
to bring up the stock of goods in
transit as high as 100000 In
the early days the commission would
have to send canal boats first to one
part of Belgium and then to another
where the supplies were within less
than twenty-four hours of exhaus
ton.
Food supplies Pooled Now.
At first the commission endeavored
to distribute the actual gift food con-
signed to them to the actually desti-
tute persons. Within week they
found an enormous amount of diff
Guilty and confusion arising out of
this arrangement because it would be
necessary to divide a cargo of gift
Hour, for instance, over 1000 COM
munes in Belgium. and at the same
Tune to ship parallel with it a large
quantity of foodstuffs, consigning
them for the purposes of sale for
those who could pay. This meant a
duplication of the entire transport
organization and in fact was quite
impossible because noSEift cargo was
sufficient in size TO distribute over
1000 communes; and the next thing
me commission found was that 1t
was borrowing from the gift cargoes
and was loaning food from the sales
department to the benevolent depart
ment. The direct business minds of
the managers united this knot by a |
very simple device, by which they
sold all of the gift food from the be- !
heYolent department to the provision |
al department. The benevolent de- !
partment, instead of having food |
slutfs, thus had cash in hand. This
tthey proceeded to distribute by week. /
~ subventons to the communes, and
11rata tal I. h 10
money purchased their required inn
ports from the sales department. The |
result was an enormous simplifcatioh /
IN the work and an actual gain in eff
nciency, as the communes were then
able to buy precisely what they re-
qulred Off each individual and local |
institution.
Foodstuns Handled Free.
II is of some interest to follow the |
actual course Of a cargo of foodstuffs
through the commission Take the /
case of Argentine wheat. one Of the
iargest firms of grain buyers in the
argentina undertook to make pur-
chases on behalf of the commission
without profit to themselves. This
3 ram would be purchased in one of
we central Argentine provinces, trans
ported to Buenos Aires, and a freight
iald on it, less than the usual rates
ny virtue of arrangements by the
commission with the railway compa
illes az Buenos Aires. A cargo would I
pe taken up by one of the regular
steamers of the commission. mas
nluch as the commission mad nego-
Itoved an arrangement with all of the
0s,elililserent governments that ships
, wing the commissions flag would
ue immune from attack at sea, they
we're able to charter ships and OBJ
am rates at less than normal This
aiso' IN due time, arrived at Rotter-
, uaIn and was there discharged into
.'shtefs which are under time char
w.. 10 the commission These lighters
sie lowed down the canals from Rot
~, 1uam INTO Belgium and discharged H
P ayp one Of the five milling centers in
Inc Hour mills in these five cities
My operated on behalf of the com
whereby the commission
astees to pay for tie labor and actual /
st OF operation The wheat is mill
~ INTO 80 per ,ent flour and 90 per [
oran and the bran is sold to the {
,,s leipal dairies to feed the cattle I
MN thereb1 maintain the cycle of
''uA supply for the baby canteens