SHEPHERDING THE SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3180, 3 September 1917, Page 5

SHEPHERDING THE SOLDIER

« — 1 — KHAKI GIRLS' COEPS IN LONDON, An organisation triumph of the war is the way in which, soldiers arriving in London for their 10 days' leave are now caTed for, shepherded, made- happy, and put in the right train for home (says the "Daily Mail"). One remembers the confusion in earlier .days—provincial men fresh, from the front—finding their way about London as best they could, and in a sad number of cases picked up by harpies and adventurers. It is very different now, as may be seen on Vjc- , toria Station on ony _ afternoon. Ihe soldier, who has acquired ther habit of discipline, likes to bo told what he is. to do, and there is an increasing number of friendly people ready to.help him. The scene at the station is a stirring one. Crowds of women crane their necks out- ■ sido the barriers, and groups of Volunteers in dove-grey and young women in ■ khaki are within. The first dash of the incoming men is to the little cabine where French money is changed—BJd. for a franc, lis. Bd. for 20, 18s. id. for 25, .£3 13s. W. for 100. Over .£BOOO has been changed in a day. Then tea and sandwiches and cake at the free buffets, and then a bustling rush to the barrier, where volunteers shout times and stations ill reply to questions with, tho rapidity and accuracy of Datas. "Qiiite easy," says one of the voluntesrs, who is a managing director in private life. "You have only 52 important trains to remember; for the rest you take your 'ABC* out of your pocket.' Eed and blue slips are distributed, giving the most important centres of tha United Kingdom and the stations whence the trains depart. More volunteers shepherd the soliders to the Underground subway. More and at diitorent points direct them to the right piatform and the right end of it. A railway warrant to London carries .the soldier to any part of the metropolis; a through warrant franks him on the Underground and the Tube between main stations. Some soldiers arrivo penniless, but they can always get an advance up to £2. That is paid at the Buckingham Palaco Hotel. Young women of the Women's Ambulance escort them there in batches, and then escort them back to the Underground. Frequently a thousand men a day are thus conducted; on ono recent day there were 1300. Twenty per cent, of the returning soldiers go from Faddington to the west country; the homes of the remainder are in Lon- , don, tlie Midlands, the north, and Scotland. On the return journey to the front, as tho train leaves before seven in the morning cubicles are provided in contiguous rest-huts for men who require them—bed and breakfast for about a shilling. The Volunteers are the Station Company of the National Guard (Gth City of London Volunteers, Victoria Station Service). They want more men for the work, particularly from Mondays to Fridays, when -the trains arrive between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. They appeal to club-men with afternoons to spare for this excellent employment, which is highly appreciated by the soldiers, though their' thanks are generally confinod to a Jolly smile. It is officially ruled that the work cornea under the hea<fing of Temporary Military Service. An appeal is made for men over military ago and ineligible for Classes A and B,