TO AID REFUGEES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SiR, = The
stamp method of raising money for a charitable purpose, proposed by Commander. King-Hall and mentioned by one of your leaders in your last issue, has in Switzerland long been in regular and successful operation.
Every Christmas special Pro juventute stamps are on sale, costing a fraction more than the normal stamps of the same nominal value, the excess fraction to go to the charity, and in this way a large sum is easily and automatically collected to help the various organisations that exist to help children.
These special stamps are on sale for only a fixed and announced period (about a month). The normal stamps, of course, remain on sale for those who want them.
There can be no possible system so simple and effective of raising money for a good cause that commands wide sympathy. Every member of the community, down to the' poorest, can give without fuss or fornialities and grading his gift according to his means, and the public generosity takes on a communal character that gives it high value as the expression of national ideals.
The expenses of such a method of collecting money must be much lower than those of any other and abuses that the police-court shows us as sometimes connected with street collections cannot exist.
If the Dominions and Colonies, &c., could be brought into such a scheme with Great Britain and. Ireland the sum raised would probably be very great.. And, incidentally, what an advertisement of the charity, bringing it prominently to the notice of those able to become large givers !
This plan seems to beat Flag Days hollow, and I suggest that Commander King-Hall or some other person interested ask for a report from the Swiss Post Office as to its. working.—
Yours faithfully, PERCY A. Sp-tot-Es. Chamby, Montreux, Switzerland.
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