Tairgim:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £200,000 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1944, chun Maoluithe ar Ghátar de dheascaibh Chogaidh agus Gorta san Eoraip agus san India (maraon le Deontas-i-gCabhair).
That a sum not exceeding £200,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1944, for the Alleviation of Distress due to War and Famine in Europe and India (including a Grant-in-Aid).
Deputies have been supplied with copies of the Estimate, and they will observe that it is divided into two parts—(a) Grant-in-Aid to the Irish Red Cross Society, £100,000; and (b) Advances to the Irish Red Cross Society, £100,000. The Red Cross Society, as Deputies know, was established here a month or two prior to the outbreak of war. It is affiliated with the International Red Cross whose work is known. I am sure, to all Deputies, and it is not necessary for me, therefore, to speak in detail about it. It operates in peace time to alleviate distress, and it is particularly active in endeavouring to alleviate distress caused by war. Shortly after the establishment of this society here, an effort was made to get it throughly organised throughout the country to meet the situation in which we ourselves were placed. The possibilities and value of the organisation were made clear, I think, to everybody, and it is an organisation which has the support of all sections of the people. The work which it has to do in times like the present is tremendous. If money were available it could do far more work than its present means would enable it to do.
I have here the proof of a pamphlet which is about to be issued by the Red Cross Society, asking the Irish people to subscribe to its resources to the extent of £500,000. In asking for that money, it points out the conditions that have already obtained as a result of this war in various parts of the world. It points out, in particular, the conditions that are likely to obtain in Europe when this war ends. I feel certain that the appeal which is about to be launched will be responded to very generously by our people. We have every reason to be thankful to Almighty God for having saved us from the miseries which war has brought upon many other nations at the present time, and I feel that our citizens, acting individually out of their resources, will show their gratitude for that and will make available, as far as possible, funds to enable this organisation to help suffering humanity in any part of the world where the greatest need may arise and in which its help can be most effective.
It will take some time for this organisation to build up the necessary funds. Already there is urgent need, so I am coming here to the Dáil, to ask, in the first place, that a sum of £100,000 be given to them, immediately, as a gift from the State— which, of course, means a gift from the members of the community as a whole. There is an almost immediate need, as I will indicate later, for that sum of money for a special-purpose. I am asking also that, in advance of the appeal which they are making to private individuals, there be made available a credit on which they can draw if there is urgent need for relief in Europe or anywhere else. A sum of £100,000 will be needed almost immediately for India.
It does not require very much imagination to see the misery of countries over which armies have passed. You can picture two armed forces, occupying a long line across a country. According as one army advances into that country and drives the defenders there back, the unfortunate population in that particular area have to fly before them, leaving their homes and taking only a few belongings with them. Very soon, they have to discard those few belongings, with the weariness of the march, and, finally, they are left with only what they are wearing. Anybody who read the accounts of the position in Belgium or France at certain periods of this war, knows what a helpless, hopeless mass refugees in that position are. If you look at the map of the war fronts to-day, you see the territories over which armies have passed and repassed, and you can conceive what must have been the position of the millions of people who inhabited those areas. I think I saw somewhere a figure of 40,000,000 as the number of people who, in one way or another, in this war have had to leave their homes.
When armies occupy territory, their immediate concern is the success of their arms. The ordinary civilian life and civilian organisation is disrupted, its mode of transport is disorganised, or is being used definitely for military purposes, and the transport of the commodities required in ordinary daily life has ceased. If the movement of armies over the territory takes place in the springtime, no crops can be sown; if it takes place when the crops have been sown, they are often destroyed—partially, at any rate; and if it takes place during the harvest time, the harvest cannot be reaped. It is certain that millions have suffered, and that the starvation, hardships and privations of various kinds have ended very often in death. It is not surprising that there should be conditions of semi-starvation in large parts of Europe, and death by famine to tens of thousands in other parts of Europe. It is very hard to get anything like trustworthy figures, but I understand that tens of thousands have died from starvation—for example, in Greece. In other parts of Europe, also, there may have been something of the same kind. In regard to Russia, I have not been able to get satisfactory accounts, but it requires very little imagination and very little knowledge of war to realise that there must be famine conditions, and the pestilence that follows those conditions, over a very large part of Europe to-day.
Only yesterday, or the day before, I received a telegram from Calcutta, telling the conditions that obtain there, and asking for substantial financial help. We know that in Bengal, for example, there are tens of thousands of deaths—to put it without any exaggeration. An appeal is being made to us to help. The Red Cross Society would be the natural organisation to give any national aid that we could give. The Red Cross Society has given a very small sum already to the Indian Red Cross, and I thought it only right that we should make available for them a reasonably substantial sum that they could send immediately to their aid.
In cases of starvation, of course, money does not seem to be the most effective thing—you cannot eat notes, you cannot eat cash—so one thinks immediately of sending food. We are not in a position to send food, but our Red Cross Society inquired from the Indian Red Cross whether, if a contribution were made in money, it could be utilised to get food for the starving people there. The reply was that it could.
It has been suggested—and I have spoken about this, naturally, to my colleagues in the Government and to some other members of the House— that we, ourselves, perhaps, could purchase the food and send it or get it sent. If we were able to do that, there is no doubt that the Indian Red Cross, through its connections, would also be able to get it. They would also be able to purchase the food, if we could do so, and they would get it, probably, more expeditiously than we would. Consequently, the purpose of this first £100,000 is to put our Red Cross Society in funds, so that they may make this contribution to relieve the conditions that obtain at the present time in India. I feel that every member of the House will be in favour of making this contribution. It is, of course, only a small contribution, although it is substantial enough from the point of view of our resources. It can do very little to relieve the misery that obtains but, at any rate, it indicates an effort on our part to do something, the best we can. I do not believe there will be any opposition to making this sum available.
We will have other demands. In this pamphlet that is about to be issued I see a list indicating the help that has already been given to a number of Red Cross Societies in other countries. Included in the list are China and Finland and, following the disaster in Turkey, there have been contributions made. I do not want to say they were large in amount, but they were as large as the resources available for the Red Cross at the moment would permit. At the end of this war there will be an appalling situation facing Europe, and we think our Red Cross ought to be in a position in which it will be able to give some substantial aid. We do not know when an occasion for this may occur. For instance, this particular appeal came rather suddenly; we were not expecting it. In just the same manner other appeals may come before the Red Cross drive has brought into its funds the sums that will be needed. It is desirable, therefore, that we should make something available to meet cases of urgency before they get their £500,000, which I hope they will get. Before they do get it, I think it is well that they should have a certain sum made available to their credit from the Exchequer here.
I feel certain every Deputy will support this Vote. I hope that there will go out from this House, from all Deputies, an appeal to our people to contribute generously to the funds of the Red Cross, so that this section of that great international humanitarian organisation may be in a position to do its share in relieving distress.