The Committee of the Associated Charities of Shanghai, representing eighteen organizations and covering American, British, French, German, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Russian and International charitable effort, has appealed to the public to refrain from giving indiscriminate donations in response to applications for the relief of foreign distress. The Committee points out that there are a number of persons who habitually call on firms and individuals soliciting aid, and it desires to take such steps as are possible to prevent duplication and overlapping. This, of course, is an old story in Shanghai but at the present time when every dollar available for relief should be spent to the best advantage, it is one to which urgent attention should be drawn. Importunity often manages to conquer indolence or lack of courage and so evade the machinery carefully installed by the societies for the protection of their patrons. The scheme shatters the last excuse of the inefficient humanitarian: it provides a Central Registry (Tel. 75140) with the King's Daughters' Society from which direction to the appropriate organization can at once be obtained, The Registry has a record of the details of all cases dealt with, so identification of applicants can be readily secured. On this point Dean Trivett's warning complete with a specific example may be usefully studied in the correspondence columns:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.