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Show j loved one", are left entirely dependent upon aid from the allied governments for their daily bread. And America, because she has 'iiiffered least. U best I prepared to give them assistance. Let I us not, then, in our ecstasy of victory, forget these five millions of persons I who courted ruin that we might succeed. The following appeal from the Dollar Christmas fund for destitute Belgian children, signed by Henry Clews, one of the "approved" charity organizations organiza-tions of New York, is most timely, and it doe not lose any force because of I the recent joyous events: "On the eve of Belgium's deliver- anec there is a danger lest we forget that the sufferings of five million people j wholly dependent upon aid from the allied governments for their daily bread continue and will not terminate until some semblance of restoration has been accomplished. Long before the United States entered the war the "Dollar Christmas fund was the means of bringing bring-ing hope and comfort to the destitute Belgian children at a time when hope and comfort and American sympathy were badly needed. There are 1,500,000 such children, and thanks to American support given during the Christmas season, sea-son, we have been able to bring a ray of sunshine to all the most necessitous neces-sitous cases the poorest of the poor, the orphans, the sick and the suffering. The inspiration of the day has lent a spiritual meaning to our help far in excess of the cost of buying the Christmas Christ-mas dinners albeit wo have spent over $250,000 in four successive Christmas 1 aeasons. m "The Dollar Christmas fund transfers its annual collection to the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which has the necessary machinery for purchase and distribution amongst the children in Belgium, and today, as treasurer of the fund, I make my fifth annual appeal and by the grace of God, the last to the generosity of the American people. There are still some food supplies in Belgium! which can be bought by agents of the Commission for Relief, and with these supplies we hope to be able to give every necessitous child an extra meal on Christmas day. "If Americans could read some of the heartfelt expressions of pathetic gratitude to 'les Americaines genereux' from thousands of children in Belgium which have somehow reached me, the tragedy of the Belgian child during the past four years would be fully realized aud your purse strings would be unloosed. un-loosed. ' ' Special arrangements have been made to cable the fund to Brussels on Christ--mas eve, in time to be distributed on Christmas day, and any sums addressed to me as treasurer of the Dollar Christmas Christ-mas fund, care of Henry Clews & Co., bankers, Broad street, New York, will be gratefully acknowledged. Our representative repre-sentative committee of former years has been honored this year by the addition of his excellency, the Belgian minister at Washington, Baron E. de Cartier, who joins with us in begging you not to forget the Belgian kiddies this Christmas. Christ-mas. They need your help and Christian Chris-tian sympathy as much as ever. Help us cable on Christmas eve a sum worthy of 'the United States.'' CHRISTMAS FUND. With the signing of the armistice bv Germany the war has f-ome to an CDd; and America, though still confronted witji some knotty problems of reconstruction, recon-struction, will soon regain her normal poise. During our short time in the conflict we have been far from the scene of battle and our peace time conditions have been only slihtly upset. -But Bueh is not the case in European countries. They have been long in the fight and the dreadful contest has been wager in their very homes. Esiecially is this the ease with Belgium, the heroic little nation whose sacrifice prevented the Huns from swooping down upon an unsuspecting world before any means of defense could be prepared. There the people, having given al, their homes and means of sustenance as well as |
