Catastrophe by T. Joseph Scanlon

Author:T. Joseph Scanlon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

RED TAPE

There was yet another problem: the growing complexity of the relief organization. Although the response was supervised by the Halifax Relief Committee, functions like food, fuel, clothing, transportation, shelter, and medical relief were assigned to different subcommittees. Those in need had to go to each one in turn if they had problems. Thus, a person whose home had been destroyed, who needed glasses, and who wanted to leave town would have to visit three different committees. And most visits would involve long walks. Few people could afford to pay for public transportation, let alone taxis, and the army chauffeur service was not available to the victims, only to those providing assistance. This was only part of the problem. To protect against the possibility that someone might receive help more than once, each committee was ordered to document everything it did. The victims were engulfed in paperwork, and they were becoming increasingly unhappy.

The Halifax Relief Committee was also showing some signs of grandeur. The committee now had regular office hours—9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2 to 6 p.m., and 8 to 10 p.m.—with different members working each shift. It had two drivers assigned as chauffeurs, standing by to take managing committee members where they wished to go. On 20 December, a staff check showed that the various committees now owned thirteen cars and two trucks. There was also letterhead that proclaimed R.T. MacIlreith as chairman, Ralph P. Bell as secretary, Horace A. Fleming as treasurer (Judge Harris had stepped aside), and the Bank of Nova Scotia as the committee’s bank. There was a regulation that all forms must be submitted in duplicate, and rules about how such forms were to be initialled. There were even guards for committee meetings to keep out the unwanted. The committee did draw the line at a commercial advertising campaign. When R.E. Day of MacKim Publishing proposed as much, it turned him down. The committee also decided against investing its money in MT&T securities.

Bit by bit, there were rules and regulations covering everything, and everything had a set price. Free food and clothing were now distributed on the basis of signed forms, and the rules had to be followed. A woman was given a travel warrant by the Halifax Relief Committee to travel from Pictou to Charlottetown by ferry, but that ferry was not running, so a helpful station agent arranged for her to cross from Cape Tormentine to Borden. The committee approved payment, but warned the railroad it would not do so again: “I wish, however, to definitely state that according to our arrangement with the Halifax civic committee, no transportation is to be issued to Halifax disaster sufferers, refugees, relief workers, etc., except on surrender of the standard form or order, which had been prepared and is now being issued by the Transportation Committee, Mr. F. A. Gillis, chairman, Halifax.”

On other occasions, common sense was used. When a father wished to take his four children to Sydney (the children were going to spend

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