20. Britain has taken the lead in the international
relief effort.
Already, over the past two years, we
had provided £13m of relief aid to Ethiopia. In the
last few days, we have sent 6,000 tons of food aid,
worth over £lm, to Ethiopia. We have allocated £5m
worth of extra assistance to Ethiopia and other
drought-stricken countries in Africa. Over and above
all that, the deployment of an RAF team and Hercules
aircraft to Ethiopia will greatly improve arrangements
for distributing aid within the country. And, in the
European Community, we played a major part in achieving
the agreement reached last week on the provision of
£20m of additional disaster relief for Ethiopia, of
which the British share will exceed £4.5m. We are
continuing to press for further assistance from the
Community.
21. I cannot speak of official aid to Ethiopia without
paying tribute to the magnificent and extraordinary
response by the British public to the appeal for help
by the voluntary agencies. I have been particularly
struck by the valiant efforts being made by those
working with those agencies on the ground in the
drought-stricken areas. I am sure I speak for the
whole House in saluting the marvellous voluntary
contribution to the whole relief effort. That the
agencies and the public have risen so nobly to the
challenge is something of which we can all be proud.
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