BRITISH LEGION

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1930, Page 9

BRITISH LEGION

COST OF ADMINISTRATION LONDON, January 21. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe president of the British Legion, is appointing a small committee to investigate the criticism that has been made against the Legion headquarters. Colonel Crosfield, the chairman, states that an invitation was given to a man eminent in public life, with power to co-opt others. Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice at a. meeting of a branch of the British Legion, defended the Legion against attacks that had been made upon it in a certain Sunday paper. As regarded the charge of secretiveness, he said he had been connected with a considerable number of organisations, but he knew of none whose affairs were so definitely public as those of the Legion. The total amount of subsistence allowance paid to members elected to the National Executive Council when away on duty was for the last financial year only £961. He had the accounts for the year ended September 30 last. The gross expenditure was £629,473, and was nearly balanced by a gross income of £620,427. Of the gross expenditure, £466,272 was spent either in direct relief to ex-Servicemen and their dependents, or grants and loans to asso-1 ciations of ex-service men. The gross administration expenses I of all kinds came to £186,596, of which £82,164 was the cost of poppies and wreaths. Those poppies were made in the Legion’s factory at Richmond, which maintained 175 badly disabled men. Of the administration expenses, £78,557 was contributed by the Legion in affiliation fees, life membership subscriptions, interest on deposits, investments, etc. The total cost of the poppies and the Legion’s contributions come to £160,722. Deducting that from the gross administration expenses, they got a sum of £25,874, which was the contribution from publicly subscribed funds. Of that amount, £4779 was the cost of maintaining a service for investigating pensions, claims and appeals, an unemployment bureau, and part of the cost of visits of relatives to graves of the dead in France, while £4,069 was subscribed to the British Empire Service League and to the F.I.D.A.C. Thus the actual contribution from public subscriptions to general administration expenses of headquarters, which controlled more than 3000 branches and relief committees, was £17,026, that was 2.8 per cent, of the gross expenditure of the Legion. He found it hard to believe that the public would consider that contribution unreasonable. He had not attended any meeting' of the National Executive Council since the attacks had been made, and he spoke entirely on his own responsibility, but, knowing' the facts, he felt they ought to have them, as the Legion had nothing to hide.