Accounts of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee in London (1)

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1. Expenditure

					£	s	d
November 1849	16	grants	@	7s	5	12	-
December "	29	"	"	7s	10	3	-
	3	"	"	4s	-	12	-
	1	"	"	6s	-	6	-
	1	"	"	3s	-	3	-
	2	"	"	5s	-	10	-
	1	"	"	5s 6d	-	5	6
	1	"	"	8s	-	8	-
	1	"	"	12s	-	12	-
	4	"	"	10s	2	-	-
January 1850	20	"	"	7s	7	-	-
	1	"	"	2s 6d	-	2	6
	3	"	"	4s	-	12	-
February 1 to 23	18	"	"	7s	6	6	-
	2	"	"	5s	-	10	-
	1	"	"	2s	-	2	-
	5	"	"	10s	2	10	-
	1	"	"	3s	-	3	-
	1	"	"	13s	-	13	-
	2	"	"	1s 3d	-	2	6
	1	"	"	1s	-	1	-
	114	grants	totalling		38	13	6
Postage, stamp duty, bank charges and writing materials					1	5	1
Total					39	18	7

The expenses include £26 advances to various refugees, who in the meantime have found work, for the purchase of tools, chothing, etc., which they have promised to repay later.

2. Receipts

		£	s	d
November 19	Balance	10	9	5
December 1	From the Workers' Society	-	3	6
December 10	Through the Westdeutsche Zeitung in Cologne 30 talers minuscosts	4	1	-
December 15	From German workers in Paris	2	5	10
December 17	Through Professor Turk in Rostock	16	12	6
February 11	From the Cincinnati Aid Committee	20	18	-
February 20	From workers in Schwerin	3	-	-
Total		57	10	3
Minus the above expenditures		34	18	7
Cash in hand		17	11	8

The above accounts were presented to the meeting of the local German Workers’ Society of March 4 and were found correct.

The receipts and the books of the Committee are ready at the Treasurer’s for inspection by the donors or their representatives.

Since these accounts were balanced two more items have been received from Cologne and New York, which will be entered in the next account. On the other hand, the number of refugees here needing support has been greatly increased by the constant expulsions from Switzerland and France. New refugees are arriving here almost daily, most of them in a state in which they need not only the usual scanty aid but also urgent outlays for clothes. In these circumstances the funds of the undersigned Committee are used all the more the less successful the attempts to procure means to support the refugees here from other sources appear to have been, and the more often, therefore, all the refugees arriving here are at once directed to the Committee. The efforts of the German workers here and of the refugees themselves have succeeded in finding work for many of these. But a large number of jobs which are available to refugees elsewhere are for various reasons closed to them here, in particular because of the fierce competition in overcrowded London. Moreover, the rush of new arrivals is so great that in spite of these efforts the list of persons needing support is swelling every week.

Although the greatest economy has been observed in spending the money contributed to the Committee, and regular aid can only cover the most urgent needs, because of the high prices of the necessaries of life prevailing here, the funds of the Committee were bound to shrink very rapidly in these circumstances. We must even fear that we may soon be unable to protect the local unemployed refugees from homelessness and the most extreme misery.

We are therefore appealing once more to the party in Germany itself for funds. We cry out to it that as the number and hence the need of the refugees in Switzerland and France declines, it increases in the same degree in London, and we hope that it will not come to such a pass that people who fought arms in hand for the freedom and honour of the German nation will have to beg for their bread on the street corners of London.

All contributions are requested at the address of

Mr. Henry Bauer

64 Dean Street, Soho

London

London, beginning of March 1850

The Social-Democratic Refugee Committee:

Karl Marx, Fr. Engels, H. Bauer,

A. Willich, Karl Pfänder