NEWFOUNDLAND RED CROSS WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 169, 6 April 1918, Page 6

NEWFOUNDLAND RED CROSS WORKERS

ADDRESS BY LADY DAVIDSON. An address of absorbing interest oa war work in Newfoundland, and referring to the activities more especially of the womenfolk of that colony, was given by Lady Davidson before a very largely-attended meeting of the general committee of the New South Wales division of the Red Cross recently, states the Sydney "Telegraph." In speaking of Newfoundland, Lady Davidson 6aid there were some curious things to bear in mind in relation to the ancient and loyal colony. "When the war started we did not even knoy how to dress our soldiers—no one Newfoundland had even seen a soldier —and for want of material vre had to give them blue putties instead nf khaki. When they arrived in Scotland the people called them 'blacklegs.' (Laughter.) This hurt their feelinas greatly, but now it is the greatest pride of the Ist Battalion to be known as the 'Blue Putties.'

"But I wish to speak of what thn women did"—and here she spoko of the immensity of their activities for a country which," she said, was about the same size as Ireland, or a trifle larger, with water constituting onothird of its territory. _ "The women," she said, "have no time to be idle.They spin the wool for socks and undergarments for their husbands and sons direct from the sheep's back into yam. They are all useful and handr women, but they are too cut off from news of what is taking placo elsewhere to bother much about what is aniug on in the great outside world. There are parts of the colony, in the north and all along the Newfoundland portion of .'Labrador, where they are completely isolated from the outside world' by a barrier of ice, too thick -md heavy to penetrate for half the year, and during the other half they are too busy to leave home." Lady Davidson related, in interesting detail, the genesis of the Women's Patriotic Association of Newfoundland, in order to assist and control the work for tho benefit of the British fighting forces in the field, and the part she played in tho movement, and said that' - before tho close of the meeting which marked the establishment of their organisation, over 500 women had signified their willingness to work at Gov-, eminent House at least one_ day a. week, four days a week having been organised for ordinary work, the l two remaining days being allotted to tho examination and packing of the comforts. Branches quickly sprang into existence—there are now over 200 — and, at tho end of two months, they were able to dispatch eighteen enormous cases of comforts to England., (Applause.) The first consignment included close on 2000 pairs of sockß. It was in. the spring of 1916, on the occasion of a visit to London, that Lady Davidson heard so much praise, to quote her own words, of the war wjrk in London. She was taking the opportunity at the time to Btudy the Queen Mary's Needlework Guild, which works under the personal direction of the Queen, and to the work of which Lady Davidson paid a special tribute. "I immensely impressed and inspired," remarked -Lady Davidson, "by the wonderful knowledge which the Queen possessed of all the work that was being done by the oversea Dominions and colonies." Lady Davidson's return to Newfoundland 1 saw the establishment there of a Bed Cross organisation, in affiliation with the guild, one of the large rooms at Government House being turned into a. Red Cross room. "This was at once crowded," said Lady Davidson enthusiastically, "with a

fresh influx of workers, and wo had to give over still more of the house to patriotic work—all the sparo bedrooms upstairs as well as the passages. Arid so Lady Davidson went on with her story of the izootl work. Horo she dropped a useful liint regarding a substitute for absorbent cotton wool— interesting bccruise of the application of lier remarks locally. /'Wo wore fortunate in getting inatenals, she saicl. n Wo were allowed to join a society in New York called a hospital bureau. It was organised really for supplying hospitals, but we were allowed to join it by paying £10 every half-year. Wo got our things freight and duty free, and got practically all hospital material at the same prico as the trade paid for it in New York. And it was extraordinarily cheap. The only tiling of which, there appeared to bo a shortage m ISew York was absorbent cotton wool._ ims we replaced with a substitute which, I believe, some doctors say is every bit as good as cotton wool; I refer o sphagnum moss." ■ Lady Davidson concluded wittl a tribute to the work of the Red Gross in Sydney. "I" P reat and nobl ° work!" she said, "the British Rmjnre is linked together. We are gaining through it, because we aro tho happier . and the hotter for the work we ate doing. I feel that we cannot do enough for the men who aro going out, and giving up all for us." (Applause.) . Lady Davidson, it may be stated in passing, is <i Lady of Grace of tfco Order of St. John. -