by Gavin Fuller
For if, but only if, we endure to the end, we shall be saved. Our own fortitude and exertions will baffle the German assaults; the strength of the United States will enable the offensive once more to be undertaken; finally, the better Russia is bound to some extent to recover herself, and when she does so her forces will once more take their stand by the armies of the Allies, and play an important part of the last stages of the war. It is for us, then, to steel ourselves to bear the burden of this critical half-year, to restrict the allurements of ignoble ease and the attractions of a peace to be gained by the surrender of our ideals. It is for us to pursue the great conflict, in the course of which we have already sacrificed so much, until our enemy has been punished for his unspeakable crimes, has been compelled to make reparation to his victims, and has been rendered harmless for the future. Only after a decisive victory over the forces of evil as embodied in the German military autocracy will it be possible to turn with buoyancy and hope to the tasks of domestic reconstruction which the war has placed before us.
Yours, &c.,
F.J.C, Hearnshaw
University of London, King’s College, Strand
APPEAL FOR WOMEN’S SERVICES
SIR – Some months ago I made a joint appeal in the press, on behalf of the Central Joint VAD Committee, for women to offer their services for the sick and wounded. Once again I have to come to the public with the appeal for personal service in carrying on the work to which we have put our hand. During the last month the number of VAD members posted to meet the demands of the naval and military authorities has been very large, and although members are coming from overseas to help us, we are now in urgent need of nursing members for military and auxiliary hospitals at home and abroad. The Army is recruiting women for its service through the WAAC, and the Navy will shortly be doing so through the WRNS; we appeal for workers in, perhaps, the highest function of women’s service, the nursing back to health of the men broke in this world struggle. Recent events have brought before the public questions of which we have never lost sight, such as welfare and reforms in the VAD organisation. Amendments to the Army Council instruction, which deals with general service VAD workers, have been submitted to the military authorities. Co-ordination in both hospital and convalescent treatment for VADs is now near realisation; a central non-residential club for all VADs in uniform is shortly to be opened; the red efficiency stripe will be given responsible duties accordingly. This concession, which we have so long been urging the military authorities to grant, will greatly improve the status of VAD workers in military hospitals.
We have an urgent demand for general service members, cooks, assistant cooks, kitchenmaids, wardmaids and housemaids. We have now sent some hundreds of those general service members to France, there are thousands working in our hospitals at home, and we have reports of the excellent work they are doing. We feel sure that the spirit of the women of this country is strong enough to see this great struggle through to the finish, and this they can best do by offering a yet further share of that splendid unswerving service which has characterised the work of the VADs throughout the war. It is a great work, which does not come into the limelight, but its glory is, perhaps, the greater by reason of the very fact that it does not obtrude. Without new workers the strain will be almost too great for those who are now giving their services; a large response to this appeal will help to bring us within sight of the end for which we all long. Applications for either nursing or general VAD service should be addressed to the Chairman, VAD Department, Devonshire House, Piccadilly, London W.1
Yours faithfully,
Arthur Stanley, Chairman
83 Pall Mall, S.W.1
9 January 1918
BRITISH MUSEUM
What Removal Means
SIR – The Government still contemplates the annexation of the British Museum for the Air Board offices; that this action would imperil the nation’s heirlooms has been sufficiently discussed in the press; this monstrous and senseless proposition has caused widespread consternation. The clubs in Pall Mall, the Albert Hall, with their possibilities of temporary buildings in the neighbouring parks, each would afford more modern and convenient housing for the Air Board now and after the war.
To speak of the removal of the British Museum treasures in two months, makes one shudder at the practical sense of the new Air Board. With the expert labour available before the war such a work of removal and rehousing would have taken nine months or more. Assuming that the really national service of protecting our public inheritance of masterpieces were honestly contemplated by the Government, and resourceful Navy men put at the disposal of the British Museum officials (this suggestion allows for the impossible), the dangerous work of removal would take four or six months. There remains one point not hitherto discussed. The duties of the Air Board would not cease with the war, and the British Museum would remain in their hands and closed to the public for years after its termination. The trustees of the British Museum have so far been so apathetic in their public trust that the press alone can urge upon these gentlemen and our overworked Ministers the disastrous character of the proposition to endanger the national heirlooms and the world-famous library. Let the Museum benefit by the suggestion that efficient precaution is to be taken, at last, to save its contents, and let the Air Board find a more practical setting for its proposed improvements in activity and foresight anywhere but near the library of the British Museum.
Yours obediently,
C. Ricketts
Lansdowne House, Lansdowne Road, Holland Park
16 January 1918
GLOVES FOR THE WOUNDED
SIR – At this season of the year, when the cold strikes sharply home even in the case of the most robust, surely more might be done for the comfort of the men in hospital whose vitality has been lowered by wounds or sickness. I allude more particularly to such men as are able to go out for daily walks, and to the failure of the authorities to issue those men with warm gloves as part of their regular hospital kit. It may, of course, be answered that if the men find their hands cold, they can put them in their overcoat pockets; but in the first place, this is a sloppy and unsoldierlike practice, which does not make for brisk walking, and should not be encouraged; and in the second place, it must be remembered that for many men it is a physical impossibility, as they have to use crutches or sticks or carry their arms in a sling. It is not a pleasant sight in this, the fourth year of the war, to see a man with three gold stripes on his sleeve toiling painfully up a hill on crutches, with his hands blue with the cold. One can take such a man into the nearest shop and buy him a pair of gloves, but a matter like this is not one for haphazard private benevolence, which may relieve one case, but must perforce leave a hundred thousand unrelieved. It is a matter for action by the War Office. The Red Cross manage to provide the majority of the walking-out patients in, I believe, most of their hospitals with gloves, but there is no general free issue of gloves by Government to men in hospital; they are left to buy them for themselves – out of their 1s 6d a day!
Surely, to put it on the lowest grounds, those of economy, it would be worthwhile to issue all walking-out cases in military hospitals with gloves. Men whose hands are uncomfortably cold gravitate inevitably indoors – back to the hospital, to stuffy, smoke-laden cinemas, or to other, even less desirable, places of amusement – instead of walking about outdoors and getting the exercise and fresh air which would accelerate their recovery, and take them off the non-effective list. The glove issue would only be needed for six and a half months in the year, say from 1 October to 15 April, and if leather gloves with warm lining were obtained, though the initial cost would be greater, it would probably be cheaper in the end, as the gloves would wear better, and would be passed on from case to case.
Yours, &c.,
G.S. Meiklejohn
Hampstead
6 February 1918
IRELAND AND CONSCRIPTION
SIR – In these times of stress, when all realise that there
are reasons for what the Government do and for what they do not do, we hesitate to recommend action even in matters that seem to be beyond question. With regard to conscription in Ireland, surely no such qualification can apply. Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and it is monstrous that it should be the only part that should be exempt from compulsory military service in time of Empire peril. Some say that we should wait until the Convention has closed its sittings. The Convention, I understand, is to decide the form of Government for Ireland, and is not to decide how Ireland and the rest of the kingdom can win the war. Unless we have the necessary increase in man power we shall lose it, and if we lose the war it does not matter very much what form of Government the Irish Convention decides upon. On the other hand, we have to remember that in the rest of the United Kingdom the ‘comb’ is busily at work, and Englishmen, Scotschmen and Welshmen who are called upon to make great personal sacrifices for their country will respond infinitely more readily if Ireland was placed upon an equal footing. To my thinking, at any rate, it is so urgent a question that I trust that all who agree with me will help to make the petition which is being promoted by the National Party for Conscription in Ireland a striking revelation of the real will of the people of the country. Fortified by the knowledge that the whole nation is in favour of equality of sacrifice, I feel sure that the Government would act strongly and take the necessary steps. I am told that some tens of thousands of petition forms are in the hands of voluntary workers throughout the country, and I hope that everyone who shares my views on this matter will write to the Secretary, the National Party, 22 King Street, St James’s, S.W.1, and set to work to help make an end of an anomaly which, if it be persisted in, will be fraught with peril to the Empire, and a lasting shame to Ireland herself.
Yours, &c.,
Leconfield
Petworth House, Petworth
TREATMENT OF WOUNDED
SIR – My attention has been drawn to Mr Smallwood’s recent speech in the House of Commons, and I note with pleasure his generous reference to the YMCA. It is because I am afraid some points of his speech may give rise to misapprehension that I venture to intervene in this discussion. It is obviously difficult for the War Office to make regulations so as to ensure every case being dealt with as the very natural and proper sentiment may demand, and I believe that is one of the reasons that have led the military authorities to give such ample facilities to the YMCA for carrying on its humanising work at home and overseas. Though absolutely unofficial, the YMCA is to all intents and purposes an unofficial department of the military machine. It is in camp by the courtesy of the military, and all we do is done with the consent, and often at the suggestion, of the military authorities and its representatives.
Another great humanising element within the military machine is the medical and hospital organisation – RAMC, or Red Cross. No doubt mistakes are made at times – it is inevitable when operations are carried out on such a huge scale – but everywhere I hear nothing but praise and appreciation of the kindness and consideration shown by the doctors, nurses and attendants alike. We have every reason to be proud of them. Miss Brown, the lady superintendent of one of our big hostels for the relatives of the dangerously wounded men, wrote to me on 25 January, saying that her attention had been drawn to Mr Smallwood’s statement in the House, and she had since discovered that it was one of the hospitals in the neighbourhood in which she was working to which he referred. She adds:
I feel I am in a position to speak on the matter, as I have been here two years on the 14th of next month, and have had over 2,400 visitors and relatives of wounded in my charge. I speak entirely from the relatives’ point of view, as I am seldom in the hospitals myself, and they speak very freely and always of the utmost kindness and consideration shown to them and their boys by all in the hospitals and on the journey. Their gratitude has been unbounded. Their treatment has been so different to anything they imagined possible under the circumstances, and again and again have I heard the assertion, even when they have lost their boys, that nothing more could have been done, no hospital at home could have better cared for them, and the patience and tact of both doctors and nurses has amazed them. Again and again has the tap at my window come in the night, which means send a relative along, the boy is worse, and again and again have they been kept the night at the hospital. Of course, there have been cases where absolute quiet was the only chance of recovery, and they have been told to leave the patient, and they have recognised and complied at once with the need. My experience is not only of the five hospitals at our doors, but also during the first sixteen or seventeen months of many other hospitals in the area, and the report has always been to the same effect. I think the true facts should somehow be made known to the people, for in the matter of caring for the wounded the soulless War Office has shown itself especially very kind and human. The nation is at war today, and therefore everyone is concerned for their men, and nothing is too much to be done for them, but the whole truth, as a whole, not an isolated case for which there may be a special reason for special treatment, should be quoted …
I sympathise deeply with Mr Smallwood, but think it only fair to the devoted people who run our hospitals, as well as to the military authorities, to make this communication to the press.
Your obedient servant,
Arthur K. Yapp
YMCA, W.1
4 June 1918
SHORTAGE OF ACCOUNTANTS
SIR – It is admitted by everyone who knows the circumstances that at the present time there is almost a famine of qualified accountants and it is needless to labour this fact in the face of the revelations exposed lately in Ministry of Munitions, and so short is the country of accountants it has been found necessary to recall as many as possible from the combatant ranks, and also to obtain help from abroad, while there are also special instructions issued to tribunals with regard to their indispensability and exemption. The consequence is, that many young and healthy men of military age have of necessity been kept out of the fighting ranks. I do not for a moment question the wisdom of this step, for if there is to be any proper control of the enormous expenditure now going on it can only be checked by those qualified to deal with it. What I desire to suggest is that the Government should take steps to try and remedy this shortage by offering special facilities and opportunities to wounded soldiers and other suitable candidates to acquire this special knowledge by means of training schools under the administration of qualified accountants. I would particularly emphasise the opportunity that would thus be offered to wounded soldiers with an aptitude for figures of acquiring a profession of great value to them after the war. In the training I suggest, frequent examinations should be held, to test the progress of the candidates, and if a candidate is found wanting in the necessary aptitude he should not be retained.
Trained accountants will be required just as much to clear up the aftermath of the war as now, while with the expansion of trade which is to be expected when the war is over the opportunities for employment should be much increased. It will be argued by the ‘trade unions’ in the accountancy profession that it is impossible to make a qualified accountant without years of training and experience, but the war has shown the fallacy of most preconceived ideas – gunners and airmen can now be trained in a few months, and even Cabinet Ministers have risen from obscurity in the course of a year or so. Therefore, why cannot qualified accountants be made within a reasonable time, given the opportunity of training?
Yours faithfully,
G. Bettesworth-Pigg ott, Deputy-Chairman, Appeal Tribunal, House of Commons
5 November 1918
WHEN WE TALK OF PEACE
SIR – As I read the brilliant pen-picture written by your correspondent Mr H.C. Bailey on the ‘Great Advance’ this ‘question presented itself to my mind’. ‘Always,’ he says, ‘when we talk of peace let us remember that belt of desert forty miles broad, and remember that the men who willed and ordered its desolation have boasted of it and gloried i
n it as one of the triumphs of the German war.’ Stretch county upon county as long and as deep as Sussex, picture towns and hamlets bashed to pieces, plough and pasture churned with shell, untillable for a generation, woods and coverts stripped and shattered, and then you get some little idea of what France and Belgium have endured. Desolation of desolation such as Daniel the prophet never dreamed of. Some day a less squeamish authority will tell what the daughters of those countries have endured, and the women and maidens in this country may thank God for their island home, their fleet and armies. They were saved on the high seas and on the fields of Flanders. The women have the vote. Trade union leaders have toured some of these districts. Send women, young women from every county and every town in the United Kingdom, from the Greater Britains beyond the seas, from every state in the United States, from all neutral countries, organise these parties officially, let the states pay the expense, let armies of them be taken over the shell-shattered soil of France, that they may tell their children’s children of the Hell of the Hun. I don’t want the tea-gossipers of the West End alone to go.
I want the women from every class to see these things. Then they will know what war is in all its fearful brutality. Seeing is believing, and there is precious little imagination in a hard-working labourer’s cottage or a working man’s tenement. Let the women from neutral countries, whether from Spain, Scandinavia or South America, see and hear in France and Belgium what hell on earth is. The seamen know in every Allied and neutral state, and their vengeance is deep. Vainly will a German ship call for aid. But the women of the world cannot realise the sufferings of France and Belgium until they gaze on their scarred and wounded soils. Let women visit the war zone, let them come from the four quarters of the world as soon as time and circumstances permit. They will understand why their menfolk fought and died. This war may then end war.
