accordance with the principles applicable to British subjects in need of relief.  This system has   
several advantages.  It maintains the direct link between the refugee and the voluntary organization;   
it encourages voluntary contributions in money, kind and especially in service; and it has enabled   
the voluntary movement to carry on when otherwise it might have had to close down owing to lack   
of funds.  From the government point of view it has relieved the state of the troublesome task of   
accepting direct responsibility for the welfare and care of some ninety thousand refugees.  At the   
red close co-operation between government departments and vo
 
                                                            
 
 
 Similar schemes might well be adopted in other countries where the state makes grants towards   
refugees.  It is capable of modification and adaptation to local conditions.  For instance, some   
governments might think it desirable to have an official chairman or official representative on   
the committee which administrates the grant.  Or they might find it convenient to deal direct with   
a well- established voluntary organization.  But the principle by which the public authority   
assesses the rate of maintenance in each individual case while the actual payment is made through   
       a welfare agency has, I believe, many merits.        
 
                                                            
 
 
 (e) International Funds.  We come to the last source of financial assistance, namely   
international funds.  It is clear that international assistance will be necessary on a very large   
scale.  Without it, reconstruction cannot begin, or continue, or be completed.  And without   
reconstruction there cannot be revival of international trade, commerce, and prosperity.  Since   
the problem of displaced persons is one part only of the gheneral question, it is outside my   
province, even if it were within my ability, to make any suggestions regarding the system of   
finance or the fixation of contributions.  But I would most strongly urge that, within the general   
framework, adequate provision be made for the short and long-term programmes, and that the   
acceptance of the refugee problem as an international question, as it undoubtedly is, be accompanied   
by the practical consequence that the financial gulf between expenditure and the revenue available   
from other sources should be bridged by international funds.  This will, of course, mean the   
complete abrogation of the principle observed by the League of Nations and also laid down at the   
Evian Conference that, except for administrative expenditure, the refugee problem should not be   
             a charge o international funds.                
 
                                                            
 
 
When we come to consider the nature and scope of the expenditure which the International   
Refugee Authority will have to incur, it is necessary to form as clear a picture as present   
circumstances will allow of:-  
                                                            
 
 (a) the functions which relief organizations will perform;  
                                                            
 
  (b) the gradual transference of some of those functions for particular problems to the   
         international refugee authority;  
                                                            
 
  (c) the intial functions of the International Refugee Authority; and   
                                                            
 
evelopment of its functions as the long-term problems become