The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-03
RELIEF COMMISSION
 IS. WELL SUPPLIED No Danger of the Belgians
 Starving Overnight
 PROBLEM IS SOLVED Relations Between Benevolence and
PROBLEM IS SOLVED
Relations Between Benevolence and Sales Department Established So As to Develop Maximum Eff
 ficiency In Distribution

London, May 2s.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press.)-The warehouses of the American commission for the relief of Belgium at Rotterdam and various pro vincial centers are at last sufficiently well stocked so that the commission can stand the shock of interruptnins in the receipt of supplies without fearing that the Eel gians will starve over night.
 One of the hardest problems with which the commission had to deal was the fact that belligerent nations refusel to permit the purchase within their boundaries or foodstuffs for the Belgian sufferers. It vas consequently necessary to obtain all the food overseas. It was found that if purchases were made in the primary cen ters and the most economical transport undertaken, it was necessary to have in transit at all times three months fooo supply The commission, therefore, man. aged to borrow $1o,0OO,Oo0 secured upon the goods in transit and the members of the commission pledged their personal credit for the further communes to bring up the stock of goods in transit as high some times as s20,O00 0co In the early days the commission would have to send canal | boats first to one part of Belgium and then to another, where supplies were with in less than 24 hours of exhaustion.
 Problem Is Solved
 At first the commission endeavored to distribute the actual gift food consigned to them to the actually destitue persons Within a week they found an enormous amount of difficulty and confuslon arls ing out of this arrangement because 1t would be necessary to divide cargo of gift flour, for instance. over 3000 com munes in Belgium and Tt the same time to ship parallel with Il 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 no gift cargo Tas sufficient in size to distribute over 3000 communes: and the next thing the comm ssion found was that it was bor- rowing from the gift cargoes and was loaning. food from the sales department. to the benevolent department. 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 benevolent department to the pro- yisioning department The benevolent de- partment Instead of having foodstufes thus had cash in hand This they pro- ceeded to distribute by weekly subven- 1 tions to the communes, and the com munal authorities with this money pur- chased their required imports from the 1 sales department. The result was an enor- nous simplification in the work and an actual gain in efficiency. as the communes
 were then able to buy precisely what the, iequired for each individual and local 1 institution.
 | It is of some interest to follow the actual | course of a cargo of foodstuffs throuol, | the commission Take the case of Argen-
 tine wheat One of the largest firms ot grain buyers in the Argentine undertook to make purchases on behalf of the com
 mission without profit 70 themselves This grain would be purchased in one of the
 central Argentine provinces. transported
 to Buenos Aires. and freight paid on | 1t, less than the usual rates by virtue
 or arrangements by the commission with
 the railway companies at Buenos Aires.
 A cargo would be taken up by one of 1 the regular steamers of the commission 1 lnasmuch as the commission had nego- i tiated an arrangement with all of the 1 helligerent governments that ships flying
 the commissions flag would be immune
 from attack at sea. they were able to | charter ships and ootain rates at less l than normal. This cargo, in due time ar
 rived at Rotterdam and was there dis
 charged into lighters which are unde.
 time charter to the commission. These , lighters are lowed down the canals from
 Rotterdam into Belgium and discharged
 into one of the five milling centers in Belgium.
 Operate Flour Mills
 "The flour mills in these five cities ar,
 operated on behalf of the commission
 whereby the commission agrees to pa, | for the labor and actual cost of opera
 ton. The wheat is milled into 80 ne,
 cent flour and 20 per cent bran and th,
 bran is sold to the municipal dairies to
 feed the cattle and thereby maintain th,
 cycle of milk supply for the baby can
 teens. The -four is again loaded int
 lighters and is distributed into proyincia warehouses of the commission. Fror- these warehouses it is again distributed
 into 'arondissement warehouses; The communal authorities come to the arcn
 dissement warehouses for their supplies The communes pay in cash to the arron-
 d1ssement managers the stipulated price or nour and having removed 1t to the
 communal warehouse there begins one l<.&