CO129-563-9 The Brewin Charity- request for official patronage 13-7-1937 - 22-7-1937 — Page 5

the fund even more useful for the purposes

originally contemplated. These purposes were

(1) to give a little financial assistance to

workmen incapacitated by age, sickness or

accident, and (2) to give financial relief to

their widows and orphans. The fund had been

started with some $36,000 privately subscribed

It had now grown to $200,000 by

by Chinese.

continual gifts, comprising apparently a

collection of quite small sums. The income had

come to be distributed almost entirely in the

form of annuities to poor widows. There was

now scarcely any case, he understood, of any

grants to aged or injured workmen, which was,

according to him, not only one of the purposes,

but really the principal purpose of the fund.

He thought that it might be possible to suggest

that the Government might take a more practical

interest in the fund, with a view to its

development by private subscriptions, and

possibly even by a small annual grant from

public funds, and that the absence of any

applications from workmen themselves for

assistance might be due to the fact that no

workmen knew, or could know, of its existence.

Possibly this could be cured by including one

or more representative workmen and employers

on the Administrative Committee of the fund,

and possibly also the scope of the fund might

be extended within its proper sphere if

Magistrates could be informed of its existence,

so that if a hard case came to light in the

Courts, recommendations for assistance could

be