IN FAMINE AREAS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 49, 27 February 1923, Page 7

IN FAMINE AREAS

RELIEF FOR THE STARVING

WORK OF SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND

"TERRIFIED HORDES" IN GREECE. '

The chief Continental organiser of th« Save the Children Fund, Dr. Armstrong Smith, is at present in Wellington. He ic making an extensive tour of the Brii tish Dominions in connection with the | great international work undertaken by the organisatio"ii with the object of preserving child life wherever it is menaced by conditions of economic hardship and distress. Dr. Smith's career has been very varied, and he has had the widest possible experience in famine relief work since the war, having visited all the relief centres in Europe, Russia, and Asia Minor. He began hie connection with post-war relief work in Europe in February, 1920, serving first as a representative of the Action Lodge Famine Relief Fund, and subsequently as the Save tha Children Fund chief administrator in Budapest. He qualified iumedicine and surgery in 1905,' but prior to that he went to Honolulu as a schoolmaster, staying there until 1900, and taking charge of pest houses during epidemics of cholera and plague. A public testimonial for his services enabled him to study medicine, and he ultimately became superintendent-surgeon of the. P. and 0. Company at Bombay. He is therefore specially qualified for his official position. During fifteen months prior to his departure from England on the present tour he travelled over 26,000 miles, visiting sixteen countries in which the funds oi the organisation are expended. THANKS FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS. "My first reason for coming out to Australia and. New Zealand," said Dr. Smith in an interview to-day, "is to thank the people of these countries for what they have done in the matter of subscriptions to the fund. The Dominions of New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Australia have given immense assistance in this vast work, having contributed about £120,000. of which New Zealand gave the largest share—■ £58,000. It would have been quite impossible for the organisation to function without the help of the colonies. Secondly, I want to assure New Zealanders on my personal word of honour that the food they are contributing to is actually reaching the children. I have actually been in every country affected, and I can give this assurance from my own personal knowledge and experience. All that is lost in pilfering and otherwise amounts to approximately one-half per cent." FUTURE WORK. In stressing the need for the vvork of the organisation to be continued, Dr. Smith said, that conditions in the faminestricken countries of Europe were not yet restored to anything like normal, and he desired to appeal to the generosity of those whose sympathy went out to the sufferers to help the starving children over the present European winter. Since he left England on 25th August, the fund had been obliged to take on extra work. During the last six months over one million women and children had poured into Greece from Asia Minor and Thrace and Constantinople, as a result of the recent events on the shores of tho Mediterranean. Cables received stated that people were arriving in Greece, "in terrifying starving hordes," and it was estimated that 18 per cent, of the present population of Greece consisted of refugees. Nearly all these people were without bread-winners, their men-folk having been either killed, taken prisoner, deported, or drafted into the Turkish Army. The Save the Children Fund, in addition to its activities in other parts of Europe, now had to turn its attention to those distressed hordes. SOME MISCONCEPTIONS. There were several misconceptions at to the work of the organisation, said Dr. Smith, which he desired to remove. It was often thought that the fund was only being drawn upon for the feeding of children in Russia. This was not so. It had been used for the purpose of feeding children in no less than 18 different countries in Central Europe and Armenia. It was true that at the present time 350,000 children were being fed in the Volga district of Russia from 1450 food stations. Hopes had been entertained that it would not be necessary to feed the children of that large area this winter, as it was expected the harvest would be a rich one. Hopes had not been realised, however, as the harvest was only sufficient to last till December. The poorness of the crop was due to insufficient sowing. It had therefore been found absolutely necessary to continue feeding, and brighter hopes were held for the yield next August. The number of people in Central Europe who had died from starvation and disease in the last eighteen months was about five times the population of New Zealand. It was often said'that the organisation was not working on businesslike lines. He met that allegation by stating that the fund was feeding the children at a cost of l£d per head per meal, including overhead expenses. Transport, kitchen, and Russian personnal expenses were paid for by the Soviet, but the actual handling of the food was supervised by a staff of Britishers. An- | other misconception was that the food • went to the Red Army. He emphatically denied the impression. That statement, he said, had caused the death of hundreds of children, lor it had very largely affected public contributions.

As illustrating the extent of the organisation, Dr. Smith remarked that there were at least twenty countries interested in and affiliated with the international Save the Children Fund. It wag one of the most wonderful organisations in the world.

Dr. Smith will addTesa a. public meeting at His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday evening next, and he promises to show some unique films bearing upon the work of the fund in the famine areas.^ »