" I AM TOLD "
SIR,—The perversions a simple statement of fact can undergo by the time it reaches the " I am told " stage pass belief. Here is a sentence from a letter addressed to the British and Allies' Comforts and Victims of War Fund: " I have been informed from a reliable source, who got it from a well-known journal, that you are running a disreputable fund, with no auditor and no committee, trying to get money from a gullible public under the names of so-called patrons, who know nothing of your nefarious deeds." The basis for this is a paragraph in which I observed of this organisation that its printed appeal made no mention of a committee or treasurer, and added " I have no doubt that all this is excellently meant, and that the accounts are properly kept and duly audited, but an appeal carries more weight when some reference is made to such formalities." I had, in fact, satisfied myself before I wrote at all that there was no imputation to be made against this fund, but I hold that when any organisation is appealing to the public for money it should fortify itself with a treasurer, committee and auditor, and say so. My criticism does not go an inch beyond that, and I should be sorry if this particular fund suffered in any way from mischievous misinterpretations of what I
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