HUNTLY RELIEF FUND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 75, 25 September 1914, Page 8

HUNTLY RELIEF FUND

Speaking to a Post reporter to-day, Mr. R. F. Bollard referred to the statement made by Mr. R. Semple in regard to the Huntly Relief Fund, as pubished in our columns yesterday evening. As far as the setting up of the Relief Committee at Huntly was concerned, he said, there was previously in existence a Patriotic Fund Committee, consisting of the leading citizens of Huntly and the executive of the Miners' Union. A meeting of that committee was called for the night of the 14th by the chairman of the Town Board, and it was decided to close the Patriotic Fund and devote any further contributions to the "Huntly Miners' Disaster Relief Fund." Mr. Bollard's name was added to the committee, and a circular was issued setting foith the names of those who had been killed and injured. " Mr. Semple states," added .Mr. Bollard, " that they knew nothing of the meeting until they arrived on the spot. The meeting, he explained, was held on the 14th, the night .of * the day on which the first funeral was held, because it was deemed advisable to start the Relief Fund going at once, so as to relieve immediate distress. Tho meeting was called by the Chairman of tho Town Board and was properly constituted in every respect, and he could not see why •tho Labour people should want to set up a separate Relief Fund." The committee, he added, was anxious to make the fund a large one, so that, after the Bufferers had been relieved, the fund could be made a national affair, to be applied solely for the purpose of dealing with similar disasters, and the Government is drafting a Bill to put the idea into proper form.