On an estimated distribution of relief supplies, valued at half a million dollars, the cost of distribution, covering a period of seven months, exclusive of the charter price for the steamer “State of Texas,” amounts to less than three per cent of the value of the goods distributed.
REFUGEES FROM SANTIAGO.
LETTER OF SANTIAGO COMMITTEE.
Miss Clara Barton,
President of the American National Red Cross, Santiago de Cuba:
Madam:—The undersigned, who have had the honor to form your committee to assist you in the distribution of relief to this city during the permanence in it of the Red Cross, desire on the eve of your departure to “give an account of their stewardship,” presenting at same time in a condensed form an idea of the work that has been done.
It would probably be difficult to cite an instance in which a relief vessel has arrived so opportunely anywhere as the steamship “State of Texas” arrived in Santiago de Cuba. After a rigorous blockade of two months, during which stocks of provisions had run very low, the greatest part of the inhabitants of the city, under stress of threatened bombardment, had abandoned their homes and taken refuge in the neighboring villages. On their return, after the occupation of the city by the American troops, many of the citizens found that during their absence their homes had been looted and the small store of provisions which they counted upon had disappeared. The same fate had overtaken many shops, and the establishments which had escaped, and which anyhow had hardly anything left to dispose of, remained closed for many days. It may therefore safely be said that the immense majority of the inhabitants of this city had nothing to eat, and it was at this moment that you most providentially arrived with the “State of Texas.”
The organizing of a system of relief, and the discharge of the vessel were started simultaneously and with such success that on the twentieth of July a ration of cooked food was distributed by means of the local “Cocina Economica,” 6000 persons being relieved on that day, and 9000 the next, the whole gratis distribution of rations by that institution exceeding, in the three weeks such distribution lasted, 200,000.
By advice of your committee, in order to proceed to the distribution of uncooked food, a number of commissioners were appointed, each of whom presented a detailed list of the families that he agreed to distribute among, some of these lists embracing over one thousand persons. By this means the pressure of great crowds round the Red Cross deposits, which would have rendered impossible a prompt and efficacious distribution, was avoided, and to the limited number of commissioners, who had agreed to distribute among the great number of the needy, a large amount daily was supplied.