| Description | Minute volumes indexed. The minutes are handwritten and printed and signed by the committee Chairman. The minutes are in uniformly titled minute volumes. Following the Distress Committee changing its name to the Migration and Assistance Committee in January 1929, the minute sequence in BCC/1/BJ/2 continues uninterrupted. The minutes include copies of summons to committee meetings, which include particulars of individuals emigrated (detailing initials, age, family relationships, occupation, place of emigration, remarks and expenditure), accounts and statements of income and expenditure and relief works schemes; statistical information relating to numbers of benefit claimants (including ex-servicemen); general information on public works schemes undertaken to ease unemployment in the city of Birmingham, particularly during the economic downturn of the early 1920s; and details on nominations of councillors, council staff and members of the Birmingham Board of Guardians of the Poor Law to the committee. The minutes also include a report made by George Gregory, Committee Clerk, to the committee on a visit to Canada during August and September 1929 on the progress made by Birmingham citizens emigrated there (see minutes 1087 - 1088 in BCC/1/BJ/1/1/2). The minutes of 28 March 1929 also include a detailed report concerning the work of the committee since its first meeting in 1905, including statistics of total number of cases dealt with, persons emigrated and other similar information (see minutes 1124 - 1125 in BCC/1/BJ/1/1/2). |