"ملف ١٦/٤٨ I مراسلات بشأن: صندوق تمويل الإيرل هايغ (يوم زهرة الخشخاش)" [و‎‎١‎٠‎٠] (٥٤٤/٢٠١)

PY DAY HELPS
the Poppy Day money goes, and
s asking for more.
3n funds provide pensions, on a
•ee of disablement, for those who
or whose break-down in health is
r service, and it makes provision
of men who died on service.
We can call these two figures, the cost of poppies and the
cost of administration, £100,000, which leaves us with
£446,000 to account for. By far the largest part of this,
some £330,000, goes to necessitous cases through the 4,000
local benevolent committees of the Legion, which cover the
country with a complete net-work. These committees deal
with the normal forms of assistance to cases with which they
are in direct touch and of which they have local knowledge.
Local need is the main factor governing the amount of money
which is allocated for relief work to each Committee. Fortu
nately a large number of Committees do not need anything
like the amount they collect on Poppy Day and this enables
us to make distributions to the many poorer districts especi
ally those in the distressed areas, where the collection is
naturally small, far in excess of the amount collected locally.
) fought for their Country and are
employment or through a break-
attributable to War service, and
ts, is left to private benevolence,
wolent fund is that of the British
r the proceeds of Poppy Day.
>ppies and Church Collections in
md Overseas (Scotland is separ-
d the splendid sum of £546,254, a
ee where this money goes.
provide the Poppies. Over thirty
de at the British Legion Poppy
the cost of manufacture came to
ild get these poppies cheaper if we
hen they would probably be made
r. Our Poppies cost rather more,
^e of 400 badly disabled ex-Service
•ound at good wages and working
r conditions. In the rush period
ier employed often goes up to 450.
■ried men live in excellent flats
louse, adjoining the Factory, anc^
ley are.
if the organisation of Poppy Day,
advertising, and of collecting and
tally of distributing them all over
£20,000. I doubt if there is any
tion which collects over half-a-
' year, at a cost for administrative
:nt.
We now have £116,000 to account for. Of this, £35,000
goes to the Officers’ Benevolent Department. This depart
ment deals with the claims of officers and their families.
When it joined up with the British Legion, seventeen years
ago, it had considerable invested funds which it is gradually
using up. The grant from Poppy Day funds goes to reduce
the rate at which capital is exhausted. Last year, despite
this grant, the excess of expenditure over income amounted
to £10,800, which means that capital was reduced by that
amount.
£15,000 a year goes to St. Dunstan’s to help that admir
able organisation in its work for the blind.
Of the remaining £66,000 we make an annual grant of
£20,000 a year to the Prince of Wales’ British Legion Pension
Fund, which, with this grant and the income from its capital,
maintains about 2,000 pensions of ten shillings a week to men
who are 50 years old or over, have done good war service,
are broken in health and are not entitled to any other form of
pension.
£12,000 goes to finance the employment department and
its agents, who last year found some 40,000 jobs. £4,700 is
the cost of the Pensions Department, which last year dealt
with 5,629 claims and secured for Pensioners £11,000 of
arrears of pensions and new pensions to the value of £8,000.
£4,000 goes to the British Legion Village, Preston Hall,
in Kent, where we maintain a sanatorium for tubercular ex-
Service men, and a complete village settlement, with work
shops, village hall, shop, post office and school, and a total
population of over 1,000 persons.