GREETING FROM ST. DUNSTAN’S.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1921, Page 6

GREETING FROM ST. DUNSTAN’S.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —This is the season of greetings and gifts. May I send to your readers greetings and ask them to send to me gifts. These will, I hope, give real, pleasure. They convey the gratitude of the soldiers blinded in the war for the sympathy and help which has come to them from all parts of the world. They carry the news that all we hoped for from the training given at St. Dunstan’s is being justified by these blinded men in the very wonderful success that they are making of their lives. I do not think that anyone would say it gets easier to be bravely blind as the years go on. It becomes easier to do things in the dark, but the demand on the will to keep pace with normal life grows greater rather than lessens. Constant effort is extraordinarily exacting, and it is really splendid how the men meet this demand on themselves, keep Up their interest in everfthing, and maintain their notable record as workers; some in offices, some practising as masseurs, some as poultry farmers, and others as expert craftsmen. There are still more than five hundred men learning to be blind in our class-rooms and workshops. Besides those actually blinded on the battlefields, 23,000 men were discharged from the army with seriously damaged sight, and. unfortunately, many of these are finding it necessary to come to St. Dunstan’s. We are dealing, too, with a number of men whose health does not enable them to make such quick progress as others. At the same time it becomes increasingly difficult to find for the men who are ready to start on their new life suitable homes; there is the universal shortage of houses and a great scarcity I of such small properties as the poultryi farmers need. Thus the difficulty and * expense of settling the men has increas- ' ed while we have to face enormously multiplied costs in providing for those ’who are our guests, in maintaining our

! convalescent and holiday homes, and in carrying on the ever-increasingly important work of the after-care of the blinded soldiers. We have also now to meet the expense of moving our headquarters —the offices for the organisation required I to look after nearly 2000 men—and also 1 the class-rooms and. workshops. The house, with its beautiful grounds, so generously lent by Mr. Otto Kahn as a hostel, is no longer available. Fortunately, however, we have been able to find for our new quarters another house in Regent’s Park—a place which for several generations has been the London home of the Marquesses of Bute. The interior has been adapted for offices, and in the gardens the classrooms and workshops have been re-erected. The place is near the lake on which the blinded soldiers have taken so much pleasure in rowing, i and both from the point of view of fresh air and of opportunities for un1 impeded exercise the situation is ideal. This starting again in the creation of a new training centre for the blinded soldiers has, however, been no small matter, and it adds to the reasons already referred to which prompt this appeal for the generous help of your readers. The blinded soldiers have created a magnicent record; the plans for helping them back to normal life have worked out better than anyone dreamed would be pos-. sible. I 'think, too, there is no one who realises what the gift of sight means, and what blindness must mean, and would not wish to help on this work which 'St. Dunstan’s has undertaken. I trust that any of your readers who are so generous as to respond to this appeal will forward their contributions to me at St. Dunstan’s Headquarters, Regent's Park, London, N.W.1.—1 am, etc., ARTHUR PEARSON, Chairman, Blinded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Care Committee.