NEEDS OF OUR WOUNDED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 184, 24 April 1918, Page 2

NEEDS OF OUR WOUNDED

" GOING SLOW " ON RED CROSS WORK WOMEN, WAKE UP! (By •'lmogen.") Weeks have now passed by since the beginning oi , tho great German offensive, and one begins to wonder if tho women in this city realise what it is costiiiff us. If so, there is very littlo evidence to show that this is tho ease. A visit to the Eed Cross depots, the ono in Mercer Street and the other iu tho Star Boating Club sheds, which should show striking activity at such a time as this, discloses nothing of the kind. If anything, there are even fewer workers there than over before, and those who do go to these looms to work arc not girls or youwc women, but principally women with households and families lo look after, who somehow or (mother manage lo make time in. the midst of their daily ditties to take an additional burden of work iijxm. their shoulders for the sakn of the men who ure lighting and dying with so Buperb a valour on tho fields of Franco and Flanders. What aro our young women doing wilh their spare liineP That they have spare time, and quite a considerable amount of it, is very evident, and yet tho work of these depots is hampered and hindered for want of workers. For many months tho depot in the Star Boating Club shed has been in need of the services of a Fecretary (gratuitously given, as all Tied Cross work surely ought to be), and yet no ono has been found to undertako the duties, so that the. superintendent has been forced to take them upon her own shoulders, in addition to otnef work. Should Pitch a stato of things bo allowed to exist for a moment if women fully realised how great is the need for every effort they call put forth? That thero should be, such a "going slow" both as regards output find number of workers at such a timo as this is incredible, and seems to slioh & startling want of imagination , ami understanding.

In all the vivid pictures that hnvn been penned by correspondents could thoro oe found anything that pulls at tho heartstrings more than 'this, the lure given by Philip Gibbs: — "I saw," he writes, "a. small party so weary of this endless bnttlo that they could scarcely walk. They were even holding hands like tired children, but their heads wero up gamely and undismayed."

Tho incredible magnificence of them! Tho unconquerable, incomparable valour of theso British men! And the tragedy of it!

The extreme urgency of lied Cross needs can Iμ gathered from tho telegrams sent out to His Excellency tho GovernorGeneral by tho Secretary, for State, so early in tho year asking lor a repetition of this country's efforts for the. "Our Day" appeil. It is not only money that is needed, it is hospital equipment, comforts, and material,, because of the un. ceasing demands that have been rnndo upon their supplies at Home and because of tho shortage that has followed upon tho closing down of so many industries owing to morn urgent war needs. With this the cose then it is obvious that tho first, aud foremost of our energies ave needed for tho supply of all hospital equipment in preference to ! any other form of war work, because of tho great stream of wounded that is incessantly pouring into tho hospitals of Franco and Britain, tho aftermuth of this terrible offensive. Tho fact that for tho first time since the outbreak of war the British Eed Oros3 has had to face a deficit— a sum of ,£197,792—has also to bo taken into consideration, although tho administrative expenses have- decreased from 7d. ■in tho £ io i<\.

For those reasons one would look to see almost a frenzy of ivork, a fury of enthusiasm in possession of every woman who has time or energy at her disposal or determination and sacrifice enough to make that timo in which sho can do something for r.ho gallant men in tho lighting area. It is not tho timo for a shortage of output from the depots compared with last year, or a shortage of workers. We have only to think of the battlefield where tho pride of our race make- "their mo?t agonising submission to tho will of God," and so realise what a privilege it is for those Hying in safety and comfort to lesson their pain with nil that seienw can. devise, our work provide, and money buy. In this way only can wo help to pay our great debt of gratitude for tho devotion and the heroism that aro hourly shown in the faco of inconceivable horrors by that "unexampled manhood meetinjj death with unexampled scorn and sucnfice."