Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-22
ASSOCIATED Press Correspondence

London, May 8.-The warehouses OF
the American Commission for the Re-
lief Of Belgium at Rotterdam and vari-
GUS provincial centers are at last sufti-
GENTLY we'll stocked so that the COM
mission can stand the shock Of inter-
ruptions in the receipt Of supplies with
out fearing that the Belgians will
starve over night. ,0
One Of the hardest problems with
which the commission had to deal was
the fact that belligerent nations re-
fused to permit the purchase within
their boundaries of foodstuffs for the
Belgian sufferers. 1t was consequently
necessary to obtain all the food over
seas. 1t was found that If purchases
were made in the primary centers and
the most economical transport under
taken. it was necessary to have in tran
sit at all times three months food sup
ply. The commission, therefore, man
aged to borrow SO, 000.0 900 secured upon
the goods in transit and the members
of the commission pledged their per-
sonal credit for the further communes
sit as high sometimes as $4,000, 900. 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 "a hours Of exhaustion.
At first the commission endeavored
to distribute the actual gift food con-
signed to them to the actually desti-
tute persons. Within a week they
found Ian enormous amount of diff
Guilty and confusion arising out of this
arrangement because it would be nee
essary to divide a cargo Of gift flour.
for instance, over 5000 communes in
Belgium, and at the same time to ship
parallel with it a large quantity Of
foodstuffs, consigning them for the pur-
poses of sale for those who could pay.
This meant a duplication of the entire
transport organization and in fact was
quite impossible, because no gift cargo
was sufficient in size to distribute over
5000 communes; and the next thing the
commission found was that it was
borrowing from the gift cargoes and
was loaning food from the sales de-
partment to the benevolent depart
ment. The direct business minds Of the
managers united this knot by very
simple device, by which they sold all
of the gift food from the benevolent
department to the provisioning de-
partment. The benevolent depart
ment, instead Of having foodstuffs,
thus had cash in hand. This they pro-
ceeded to distribute by weekly SUBJ
ventions to the communes, and the
communal authorities with this money
purchased their required imports from
the sales department. The result was
an enormous simpliflcation in the work
and an actual gain in efficiency, as the
communes were then able to buy pre-
cisely what they required for each in
dividual and local institution.
1t is Of some interest to follow the
actual course Of cargo of foodstuffs
through the commission. Take the
case Of Argentine wheat. One Of the
largest firms Of grain buyers in the
Argentine undertook to make pur-
chases on behalf Of the commission
without profit to themselves. This
grain would be purchased in one Of the
central Argentine provinces, transport
ed to Buenos Aires, and a freight paid
on it, less than the usual rates by vir-
tue Of arrangements by the commits
sion with the railway companies at
Buenos Aires. A cargo would be Ia
ken up by one of the regular steamers
Of the commission. Inasmuch as the
commission had negotiated an arrange
ment with all Of the belligerent gov
ernments that ships flying the COM
missions flag would be immune from