The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (41 page)
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Authors: Gavin Fuller
It is the hardships which must unavoidably be faced by all classes of the community that renders the peril of the British Bolsheviks so grave. Such mistaken people as believe that their hardships are due, not to causes inseparable from the war, but to failure on the part of the Government or to the machinations of âprofiteers', fall an easy prey to pacifists, syndicalists, Germanophiles and other types of Bolshevik agitators, who see in the present discontents a golden opportunity to precipitate the âsocial revolution' and the âclass war'. Hence there is need at one and the same time of a vigorous campaign of enlightenment for the people, and of a policy of stern suppression of those who would undermine the nation's resolve to subordinate all personal interests and all party questions to the pursuit of this just and necessary struggle to a conclusion in decisive victory.
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
SIR â 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
What Removal Means
SIR â 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
SIR â 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 â 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 â back to the hospital, to stuffy, smoke-laden cinemas, or to other, even less desirable, places of amusement â 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
SIR â 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 âcomb' 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.