TITANIC FUND.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 33, 26 November 1912, Page 7

TITANIC FUND.

HOW IT 18 TO BE SPENT.

£2 A WEEK FOR LIFE.

The material in connection with the claims on the Titanic Belief Fund has now been.' collected by the Public Trustee. Mr C. J. Stewart, and he will on Wednesday submit to the Mansion House Committee a Bcheme for the distribution of the money (stated the 'Daily Mail' 0 f October 5). This amounts to £426,000, which has been contributed by the public, including £50,000 collected by the 'Daily Mail.' The claims received up to September 14, the date of the closing of the list for applications, numbered: Crew 649 Passengers 561

Total 1210 In the case of passengers the families represented were: From the United Kingdom 200 Foreign and Colonial ... 813

Total 513 Owing to the fact that in many cases one claim had. reference to more than one person, such as widow and children, the total number of victims dependent on the fund is 2296 instead of 1210, as shown by the following table: Crew 1461 Passengers 835

Total 2296 In other words there will be 2296 people to benefit by the Mansion House Fund of £426,000. The basis of calculation for the s distribution of the fund is that the widows or other dependents of the sailors and officers who went down in the Titanic should receive a weekly grant approximately equivalent to half the victim's income. This basis is easily applicable to the members of the crew, but in regard to passengers the difficulty is much greater. There are claims from the relatives of first-class passengers, for instance, which prove that the victim was in receipt of a considerable income, though he had not taken the precaution to insure his life or otherwise provide for those dependent on him, with the result that they are now destitute. In these cases the half income basis is inapplicable, and it is, therefore, proposed that passengers and crew shall share alike. According to the proposed scale, the maximum has been fixed at £2 a week and the minimum at 12s. The Orphans.

If the victim of the shipwreck left a child, the allowance to the widow or other dependent will be increased by 3s 6d; if two children, by 5s 6dj and if three or more, by 7s per week. The following table, showing the highest and lowest weekly payments which it is proposed to make out of the fund, will give an idea of the graduated scale:—

Childless—highest £2, lowest 12s; with one child—highest £2 3s 6d, lowest los 6d; with two children—highest U 5s 6d. lowest 17s 6d; with three or more children—highest £2 7s, lowest 19s.

The proposed annuities are, generally speaking, for life. There are some exceptions, however, such as, for instance, the remarriage of. the widow. In the case of children, the allowance wuL as a rule, cease when they have attained their eighteenth birthday.