BLINDED IN BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2734, 31 March 1916, Page 9

BLINDED IN BATTLE

A YEAR'S WORK FOR SIGHTLESS SOLDIERS & SAILORS

A WONDERFUL RECORD

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Just a year ago the Blinded Soldiers' and Sailor's' Care Committee started to look after the men who have lost their sight in tho war. Wo who hava been privileged to help them reconstruct their lives are profoundly, gratified at the success which has attended the effort. We naturally looked lor happy and \iseful results, but wo scarcely dared to hope for so abundant a measure of success as has been attained.

Sympathetic folk foretold that the gathering together of a large number of men suddenly deprived of sight in tho prime of their youth and strength would mean the creation of a centre whero gloom, dejection, and unspeakable sadness reigned supreme. These prophecies have, I am happy to say, been entirely falsified. The thing which invariably strikes tho visitor as being most noticeablo aboufe the men at

St. Dunstan's is their checriness, their brightness, and their apparent disregard, of the fact that they are anything but normal. The "handicap spirit," as it may be called, pervades the classrooms and workshops. That horrible word "affliction;" and all tho gloomy ideas to which it gives rise, are forbidden entry. Those of us at St. Dunstan's who differ from the vast majority of our fellow-creatures in a very important respect do not allow that difference to impress itself upon our minds as anything but a handicap—serious, «it is true, but still to a very large extent one which can be overcome, and the overcoming of which means the exercise of qualities dear to the sport-loving Briton. Men at St. Dunstan's have learnt the difficult art of reading with the fingertips in a fortnight; men who have never seen a typewriter, and never will see one, have learnt to nso it accurately and at a fair rate of speed in the same incredibly short spaco of time. These, naturally, are exceptional cases, but as a general rule Braille reading and typewriting are acquired with remarkable rapidity. Men have gone oxit into the world after a few months' tuition able to run a little poultry farm with, a knowledge and thoroughness nothing short of amazing to folk who quite naturally look upon this profitable branch of industry as altogether beyond tho capabilities of a blind man.

Others are building up nice little businesses as cobblers, giving every satisfaction to their customers; and earning amounts equal to their weekly pensions.

"If," wrote the other day a wellknown worker among the blind in the North of England, "Private is a fair sample of your St. Dunstan's men, I must'warmly congratulate you. He came to see me this morning, looking a different man from the crushed and sad fellow I had seen before ho went. He looked in robusii health, and was full of smiles and. happiness. He and his wifo and children are comfortably off with his pension and the earnings from the mats and bags he makes at home, and at present lie has more orders than he can fill."

I am proud to say Private is a fair sample of St. Duiistan's output, and a number of others who learnt the trade of mat-making" are doing as well as he is.

Several basket-makers are earning good wages, one who has been so for-, hrnato as to obtain special work showing at present earnings which reach as high as £2 a week.

Makers of picture-frames, trays, and other articles requiring an expert knowledge of joinery find their time fully and profitably occupied. .No, masseurs have yet completed their training, but several will pass the stiff examinations x whichi lay before them in the course of the nest few weeks, 'and. they hare been promised well-paid posts at military hospitals. Other men are .rapidly qualifying as expert shorthand-writers by the Braille svstem, as telephone operators, and as divers.

The important -work of devising a satisfactory scheme of after-care for the men who are settled 'at their various occupations is proceeding satisfactorily. Arrangements have to be made for supervising their work, which would -otherwise tend to deteriorate', for providing their raw material, for marketing their goods, and for securing a continuity of well-paid employment . for those who have been trained in such occupations as massage and Boot-re-pairing. A large permanent fund will be needed if this work, which has been entrusted to a special department of the National Institute for the Blind, is to prove permanently useful. - I am glad to say _ that we have received lately many intimations of the intention to bequeath legacies for this purpose, and a great number of efforts have been made all over the country to augment the fund by bazaars and entertainments of all kinds.

The plea of the blinded soldier always proves most potent, and highly satisfactory results have followed these efforts, You could not, I fear, permit me space in which to chronicle even a fraction of them, but I may be, perhaps, allowed, to mention that a few young ladies of-a small northern town raised £900 by a bazaar. ( . A firm who wished to perpetuate the memory of a valued employeo killed at the front sent £100, which will be permanently recorded on a tablet in the hall of the National Institute for the Blind, and similar memorial sums have been sent by relatives of fallen soldiers. May I ask all who feci touched by this brief record of splendid determination and resolution to overcome a terrible disability to show .their appreciation by helping us. The names of two of our men appeared in the recent list of those who had "distinguished tlifcmsclves'. at. the front. In my opinion, they all deserve recognition for thoir two-fold bravery— the courage which first carried them into the firing line, and that which now spurs them on to silent victory against apparently overwhelming odds. Yours faithfiillv, (Sgd.) C. ARTHUR PEARSON, Chairman Blinded Soldiers' and Sailors' Care Committee. Blinded Soldiers' and SailoV Hostel, St. Dunstan's, Regent Park, N.W., London. February 7, 1916.