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Sixth Quarterly Report on the Work of the Refugees Settlement Commission

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Sixth Quarterly Report on the Work of the Refugees Settlement Commission [Communicated to the Council O 2 9 4 M 1 0 6 IQ25 II. and the Members of the League]. LEAGUE OF NATIONS Geneva, June 5th 1925. GREEK REFUGEES. Sixth Quarterly Report on the Work of the Refugees Settlement Commission. Athens, May 25th, 1925. F in a n c ia l p o s it io n . The proceeds of the Refugees' Loan were collected during this quarter and the sums thereby realised by the Commission were as follows :— A. Net proceeds of the subscription of 375,000 bonds in London (Ham bros Bank) : 1st payment January 6 t h ................................................. £2,000,000 2nd payment February 1 7 th .............................................. £1,875,000 3rd paym ent March i S t h ......................................................... £2! 100^000 £5,975,000 B. Net proceeds of the subscription of 115,000 bonds in New York (Speyer and Co.) : Sole paym ent $8,539,990.10 at 4.77 3/«......................................................... £1,787,543 C. Proceeds of the subscription of 125,000 bonds in Greece (National Bank of Greece and other Banks) : 1st paym ent Jan u ary 6 t h ................................................... £ 875,000 2nd paym ent F ebruary 1 7 t h .............................................. » 625,000 3rd paym ent March 1 8 th ........................................................ » 650,000 T o ta l........................................... £2,150,000 Less commission of 5% . > 125,000 £2,025,000 r ° ta l....................................................................... £9.787.543 A sum of about £187,000 was held back by the London and New York Banks to pay the interest on the first coupon. We pointed out to the Greek Govern­ ment that this sum ought to be repaid to us as it formed part of the net pro­ ceeds of the loan. We received a letter from the Minister of Finance, dated May 19th, 1925, in which he admitted the justice of our request and pro­ mised shortly to pay the sum. If we add this sum o f .......................................... £ 187,000 the Refugees Settlement Commission will have received a total o f ................... £9,974,543 Of this total we have been obliged to repay advances from the B ank of E n g la n d ..................................... £2,000,000 from the National Bank of Greece ......................................... £1,700,000 £3,700,000 leaving a balance o f ................................................................................................................ £6,274,543 The last is the amount on which the Refugees Settlement Commission has had to base its estimates for the future development of its work. s. d. N.9C0 a.) + rn (F. i. 6 25. Imp Kucdig. It has, therefore, in agreement with the Government, drawn up a plan for the appropriation of its funds. This plan includes : a reserve fund amounting to £800,000, for unforeseen expenses, for possible participation in the expenses of surveying the lands handed over to the Refugees Settlement Commission, and for general expenditure up till the end of 1927, at which date we expect the repayment of the advances made to the refugees to become general, and an estimate for the construction of houses in certain provincial towns for the urban refugees together with the Commitments already incurred in this respect, a sum of £1,380,000. The balance is appropriated for agricultural settlements in Macedonia, Thrace and other parts of Greece where the Government is supplying us with arable land. We have, unfortunately, been compelled to modify our original calculations in the direction of reducing the number of families to be settled. In fact, as a result of the continued exodus to Greece from Turkey and Bulgaria of exchangeable persons as well as of persons who have found continued residence in Turkey impossible, the number of families requiring settlement is steadily increasing. When drawing up our plans for the allocation of the available funds we have been obliged to refuse about 6,000 refugee families of those who had already been in communication with us with a view to their settlement. This was, of course, only done after consultation with the Government. On the other hand, we have made important reductions in the estimates submitted by the different colonisation centres and have reduced the allowance of each family to the strict mini­ mum, often to the detriment of the general development of the future production of our colonists. We hope in this manner to be in a position to inform the Greek Government that we can at once undertake the settlement of at least one-third of the 6,000 families. It must be recalled here that in addition to the latter there are still tens of thousands of refu­ gee families without homes or regular occupation. The Government is now undertaking a general census of these families by means of which we hope to ascertain the exact number among this total of the agricultural families, — those in which our Commission is more particularly interested. In view of this situation the Greek Government and the other competent authorities are consi­ dering the possibility of obtaining the necessary funds for completing the operation of settling these refugees. Although this discussion has so far had no result, it may be hoped that a satisfactory solution will be arrived at, as the preliminary examination leaves no doubt that sufficient resources exist to make it possible to obtain the necessary funds. Balance Sheet. In accordance with the provisions of its constitution, the Commission communicated to the Greek Government and the Council of the League of Nations its annual financial statement for the period ending December 31st 1924, together with a report from the auditors. M. Vardakis and M. Moraïtis, who were appointed at our request, the former by the Minister of Finance and the latter by the National Bank of Greece 1. For the current year we intend to request the International Supervisory Commission to appoint a third commissioner to assist the other two. The financial position on April 30th may be summarised as follows : 1. Expenditure for agricultural settlements......................... £4,699,092 19 9 2. » » urban » ...................» 467,236 7 4 3. Cost of first settlement............................................................. » 2,038 2 5 4. General expenditure.................................................................. » 31,622 5 10 5. Available at the National Bank of Greece..................... » 4,o6o,oro 4 8 6. » » » Bank of England ....................................... » 502,543 14 0 T o ta l2 ........................ £9,762,543 14 0 The rate of exchange plays an important part in the expenditure of the Commission. The mean rate of the sums converted by us up to December 31st, 1924, was Dr. 254.53 to the pound sterling, against an actual mean rate of Dr.246.67. Since January 1st. 1925, the rate is Dr.293.12 against a mean rate of Dr.286.80. The question of the recovery of the sums advanced is already engaging the attention of our Commission. It is not possible to undertake this work as yet, but the prospects of the forthcoming harvest are such as to afford us hopes of beginning to collect the money sooner than we had anti­ cipated. Up till now this account has been credited with only £4,701.6.11, of which £1012.8.8 repre­ sented purely voluntary repayments of advances made for agricultural purposes, and £3,688.18.3 were the proceeds of sales of land. 1 These documents are annexed to the present report. 2 The figure of £9,762,543 differs from that of £9,787,543 on page 1 owing to the fact that an instalment of £25,000 on account of the loan was paid after April 30th. Minor items such as interest, rents collected, guarantees confiscated, not included in the above account, augment the available resources of the Commission bv ft0,795. A gricultural s e t t l e m e n t . Position on March 31 si, 1925. Families settled : In M acedonia.......................................................................................... 44,130 In Thrace . ................................................................................ 15,4861 Other provinces..................................................................................... 7,322 T otal............................................................. 66,938 Families settled by the State before the creation of the Refugees Settlement Commission and whose settlement has been com­ pleted by the Commission: In M acedonia.......................................................................................... 66,920 Other provinces............................................................................................... 5,661 T otal............................................................. 72,581 Total of families settled...................................................................... 139,519 Houses constructed : In addition to the 5,023 houses built by the State, and the 50,000 houses belonging to exchange­ able Turks in Macedonia, the Commission has built : In M acedonia.................................................................................15,322 plus 11,261 \ in course of In T h r a c e .................................................................................... 3,085 » ) construction Other Provinces........................................................................... 1,732 » 3,063 Total .... 20,139 plus 14,324 Live Stock Distributed : In M acedonia.......................................................................................... 168,029 In T h r a c e ..............................................................................................
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