Church prods State into action

Aid pouring in for Ethiopia
by Peter Stanford AN appeal froln Cardinal Hume for aircraft to distribute vital food supplies in famine-stricken Ethiopia met with an immediate response from the British Government this week as development agencies and western governments reacted to public concern about the plight of over seven million starving people in the Horn of Africa.
Throughout the country Catholics reacted swiftly to two films shown on BBC News, depicting the desperate situation in Ethiopia where latest unconfirmed reports estimate that as many as 200,000 people, mainly children, have died already.
The Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (Cafod) has been inundated with offers of help and over £10,000 had already arrived at their offices by the beginning of the week. Cafod at once dispatched £200,000 to the Christian Relief and Development Association in Addis Ababa, which is coordinating the work of relief agencies in the country, as well as giving $50,000 towards an airlift of grain to Makele, one of the worst affected areas. these grants bring to well over £1.6 million the total Cafod has sent in aid to the stricken region this year. Christian Aid also this week sent £66,000 to the CRDA.
Cardinal Hume, along with Dr Runcie and the Moderator of the Free Church Federation, sent an appeal to Mrs Thatcher on October 25 calling for the release of British planes to help distribute food, and a "radical initiative" by the Government and the EEC in making emergency aid available.
Last weekend the British Government announced that it was sending two RAF Hercules transport aircraft to Ethiopia as well as an unspecified number of Land Rovers, drilling medicines and medical supplies, and also revealed a further grant of £5 million, as well as 6,000 tonnes of food aid, to add to the El I.5 million in emergency aid sent to I1 African countries so far this year.
On the same day as Cardinal Hume dispatched his letter, a delegation representing western development agencies went to Brussels to lobby the EEC to release some of 3.7 million tonnes in its silos. The Commission responded by pledging £1.8 million towards distribution costs and 35,000 tonnes of cereals. They refused,. however, to make further grants from their huge stocks saying that 1984 allocation had already been made. In parishes and churches throughout the country last Sunday collections were taken for Ethiopia. In Westminster Cathedral alone £3,000 was raised, whilst the Knights of St Columba sent £5,000 to Cafod and its sister agency in Scotland.
Catholic farmer, Oliver Walston, has organised the "Send-a-Tonne-to-Africa" campaign which had raised £250,000 by the end of last week. The idea of the scheme is that when a farmer sells his produce to merchant in this country, he instructs him to "send a tonne to Africa". The price of one tonne is then sent by the merchant to the Fund.
The Ethiopian Government has estimated that it needs 60,000 tonnes of food each month until the end of the year and will require substantial aid until the end of 1985. They have allocated several air force planes to aid distribution to the more remote areas of the country.
see editorial, page 4 and article, page 5