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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33906-8.txt b/33906-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4837f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/33906-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3068 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sword of Deborah, by F. Tennyson Jesse + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sword of Deborah + First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France + +Author: F. Tennyson Jesse + +Release Date: October 25, 2010 [EBook #33906] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SWORD OF DEBORAH *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Neufeld, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + + F. TENNYSON JESSE + + + + + "Women are timid, cower and shrink + At show of danger, some folk think; + But men there are who for their lives + Dare not so far asperse their wives. + We let that pass--so much is clear, + Though little dangers they may fear, + When greater dangers men environ, + Then women show a front of iron; + And, gentle in their manner, they + Do bold things in a quiet way." + + THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH. + +[Illustration: A "FANY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO DROPPED INTO THE CAMP] + + + + + THE SWORD + OF DEBORAH + + _FIRST-HAND IMPRESSIONS OF THE + BRITISH WOMEN'S ARMY IN FRANCE_ + + BY + F. TENNYSON JESSE + AUTHOR OF "SECRET BREAD," "THE MILKY WAY," ETC. + + NEW [Illustration] YORK + + GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + _Copyright, 1919, + By George H. Doran Company_ + + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This little book was written at the request of the Ministry of +Information in March of 1918; it was only released for publication--in +spite of the need for haste in its compiling which had been impressed on +me, and with which I had complied--shortly before Christmas. Hence it +may seem somewhat after the fair. But it appears to me that people +should still be told about the workers of the war and what they did, +even now when we are all struggling back into our chiffons--perhaps more +now than ever. For we should not forget, and how should we remember if +we have never known? + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I A.B.C. 13 + + II THE FEVER CHART OF WAR 17 + + III BACKGROUNDS 26 + + IV MY FIRST CONVOY 34 + + V OUTPOSTS 41 + + VI WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES 48 + + VII THE BROWN GRAVES 58 + + VIII VIGNETTES 65 + + IX EVENING 74 + + X NIGHT 84 + + XI "AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER" 93 + + XII REST 102 + + XIII GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL + QUESTION 111 + + XIV NOTES AND QUERIES 123 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + A "FANNY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO + DROPPED INTO THE CAMP _Frontispiece_ + + H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A VAD DOMESTIC + STAFF 48 + + A VAD MOTOR CONVOY 48 + + WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY 48 + + WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN 48 + + WAACS IN THE BAKERY 80 + + WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES 80 + + WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SAND BAGS 80 + + + + + THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + +"_Thou art an Amazon, and fightest with the sword of Deborah._" + --1 HENRY VI. 1. ii. + + + + +THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A.B.C. + + +This world of initials ... in which the members of the British +Expeditionary Force live and move--it is a bewildering place for the +outsider. Particularly to one who, like the writer, has never been able +to think in initials, any more than in dates or figures. The members of +the B.E.F.--and that at least is a set of letters that conveys something +to all of us--not only live amidst initials, but are themselves embodied +initials. To them the string of letters they reel off is no meaningless +form, no mere abracadabra to impress the supplicant, but each is a +living thing, coloured, definitely patterned, standing for something in +flesh and blood, or stone and mortar; something concrete and present to +the mind's eye at the mere mention. + +Just as, to anyone who does not know New York, it seems as though all +the streets must sound exactly alike, being merely numbered, while, to +anyone who knows them, the words East Sixty First, say, are as distinct +from East Twenty First, distinct with a whole vivid personality of their +own, as Half Moon Street from Threadneedle Street--so, to the initiate +in the game, the letters so lightly rattled off to designate this or +that official or institution stand for vivid, real, colourable things. + +But at first one is reminded forcibly of that scene in "Anna Karenina" +where Levin proposes to Kitty for the second time by means of writing in +chalk on a table the letters "W, y, t, m, i, c, n, b, d, t, m, n, o, t," +and Kitty, with great intelligence, guesses that they mean "When you +told me it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" Kitty, if you +remember, replies in initials at almost equal length, and Levin displays +an intelligence equal to hers. I had always found that scene hard of +credence, but I have come to the conclusion that Levin and Kitty would +have been invaluable at H.Q.B.R.C.S., A.P.O. 3, B.E.F. + +And the fog of initials is symbolic in a double manner; for not only do +the initials stand for what they represent to those who know, but in +their very lack of meaning for those who do not, they typify with a +peculiar aptness the fact that after all we at home in England, +particularly we ladies of England who live at home in ease, know very +little indeed of even what the letters B.E.F. stand for. We have hazy +ideas on the subject. Vaguely we know, for instance, that there are +women, lots of women, working out in France, though quite at what, +beyond nursing, we don't seem to know. Motor drivers ... of course, yes, +we have heard of them. There is a vague impression that they are having +the time of their lives, probably being quite useful too ... but of the +technique of the thing, so to speak, what do we know? About as much as +we know when we first hear the clouds of initials rattling like shrapnel +about our heads if we go over to France. + +And if we at home know so little, how can other countries know, who have +no inner working knowledge of English temperaments and training to go +upon as a rough guide to at least the probable trend of things? How can +we expect them to know? And yet knowledge of what every section of the +working community is doing was never so vital as at the present moment, +because never before has so much of the world been working together on +the same job--and the biggest job in history. + +It is always a good thing to know what other folk are doing, even when +they are not your sort, and what they are doing does not affect you, +because it teaches proportion and widens vision--how much more +important, then, when what they are doing is what you are doing too, or +what you may yet come to do? + +Gentle reader--and even more especially ungentle reader--if in these +pages I occasionally ask you to listen to my own personal confession +both of faith and of unfaith--please realise that it is not because I +imagine there is any particular interest in my way of seeing things, but +simply because it is only so that I can make you see them too. You are +looking through my window, that is all, and it is not even a window that +I opened for myself, but that had to be opened for me. If you will +realise that I went and saw all I did see, not as myself, but as you, it +will give you the idea I am wishful to convey to you. Anything I feel is +only valuable because my feeling of it may mean your feeling of it too. +Therefore, when you read "I" in these pages, don't say "Here's this +person talking of herself again ..." say "Here am I, myself. This person +only saw these things so that I should see them." + +If you don't it will be nine-tenths my fault and one-tenth your own. + +Just as all the apparently endless combinations of initials in France +are symbols of living realities to those who understand them, and of +their ignorance to those who don't just as the very heading of "A.B.C." +which I have given this chapter typifies both those combinations of +initials and the fact that you and I are beginning at the very +beginning--for no one could have been more blankly ignorant than I when +I went over to France--so the letter "I" whenever it occurs in this book +is a symbol for You. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FEVER CHART OF WAR + + +"The women are splendid...." How tired we are of hearing that, so tired +that we begin to doubt it, and the least hostile emotion that it evokes +is the sense that after all the men are so much more splendid, so far +beyond praise, that the less one says of anyone else the better. That +sentence is dead, let us hope, fallen into the same limbo as "Business +as Usual" and the rest of the early war-gags, but the prejudices it +aroused, the feeling of boredom, have not all died with it. Words have +at least this in common with men, that the evil that they do lives after +them. + +Let me admit that when those in authority sent for me to go to France +and see what certain sections of the women there were doing, I didn't +want to go. I told them rather ungraciously that if they wanted the +"sunny-haired-lassies-in-khaki-touch" they had better send somebody +else. I am not, and never have been, a feminist or any other sort of an +'ist, never having been able to divide humanity into two different +classes labelled "men" and "women." Also, to tell the truth, the idea +of going so far behind the lines did not appeal. For this there is the +excuse that in England one grows so sick of the people who talk of +"going to the Front" when they mean going to some safe château as a base +for a personally conducted tour, or--Conscientious objectors are the +worst sinners in this latter class--when they are going to sit at +canteens or paint huts a hundred miles or so behind the last line of +trenches. The reaction from this sort of thing is very apt to make one +say: "Oh, France? There's no more in being in France behind the lines +than in working in England." A point of view in which I was utterly and +completely wrong. There is a great deal of difference, not in any +increased danger, but in quite other ways, as I shall show in the place +and order in which it was gradually made apparent to me. + +Also, no one who has not been at the war knows the hideous boredom of it +... a boredom that the soul dreads like a fatal miasma. And if I had +felt it in Belgium in those terrible grey first weeks of her pain, when +at least one was in the midst of war, as it was then, still fluid and +mobile, still full of alarums and excursions, with all the suffering and +death immediately under one's eyes still a new thing; if I had felt it +again, even more strongly, when I went right up to the very back of the +front in the French war zone for the Croix Rouge, in those poor little +hospitals where the stretchers are always ready in the wards to hustle +the wounded away, and where, in devastated land only lately vacated by +the Germans, I sat and ate with peasants who were painfully and sadly +beginning to return to their ruined homes and cultivate again a soil +that might have been expected to redden the ploughshare, how much the +more then might I dread it, caught in the web of Lines of +Communication.... I feared that boredom. + +And there was another reason, both for my disinclination and my lack of +interest. We in England grew so tired, in the early days of the war, of +the fancy uniforms that burst out upon women. Every other girl one met +had an attack of khaki-itis, was spotted as the pard with badges and +striped as the zebra. Almost simultaneously with this eruption came, for +the other section of the feminine community, reaction from it. We others +became rather self-consciously proud of our femininity, of being +"fluffy"--in much the same way that anti-suffragists used to be fluffy +when they said they preferred to influence a man's vote, and that they +thought more was done by charm.... + +With official recognition of bodies such as the V.A.D.'s and the even +more epoch-making official founding of the W.A.A.C.'s, the point of view +of the un-uniformed changed. The thing was no longer a game at which +women were making silly asses of themselves and pretending to be men; it +had become regular, ordered, disciplined and worthy of respect. In +short, uniform was no longer fancy dress. + +But the feeling of boredom that had been engendered stayed on, as these +things do. It is yet to be found, partly because there still are women +who have their photographs taken in a new uniform every week, but more +because of our ignorance as to what the real workers are doing. And like +most ignorant people, I was happy in my ignorance. + +Well, I went, and am most thankful for my prejudice, my disinclination, +my prevision of boredom. For without all those, what would my conversion +be worth? Who, already convinced of religion, is amazed at attaining +salvation? It is to the mocker that the miracle is a miracle, and no +mere expected sequence of nature, divine or human. + +I was often depressed, the wherefore of which you will see, but bored, +never. Thrilled, ashamed for oneself that one does so little--admiring, +critical, amused, depressed, elated, all this gamut and its gradations +were touched, but the string of boredom, never. And the only thing that +worries anyone sent on such a quest as mine, and with the inevitable +message to deliver at the end of it, is that terrible feeling that no +matter how really one feels enthusiasm, how genuine one's conversion, +there will always be the murmur of--"Oh, yes.... Of course she has to +say all that ... it's all part of the propaganda. She was sent to do it +and she has to do it, whether she really believes in it or not...." + +What can one say? I can only tell you, O Superior Person, that no matter +what I had been sent to do and told to write I not only wouldn't but +couldn't have, unless I meant it. I can only tell you so, I can't make +you believe it. But let me also assure you that I too am--or shall I say +was?--Superior, that I too have laughed the laugh of sophistication at +enthusiasm, that I too know enough to consider vehemence amusing and +strenuous effort ill-bred, that doubtless I shall do so again. But there +is one thing that seems to me more ill-bred, and that is lack of +appreciation of those who are doing better than oneself. + +Lest you should misunderstand me when I say that I didn't want to go to +France this time, and feared boredom, and felt no particular interest in +the work of the women over there, let me add that I was careful to +sponge my mind free of all preconceived notions, either for or against, +when once it was settled that I should go. I went without enthusiasm, it +is true, but at least I went with a mind rigorously swept and garnished, +so that there might enter into it visitants of either kind, angelic or +otherwise. + +For this has always seemed to me in common honesty a necessary part of +equipment to anyone going on a special mission, charged with finding +out things as they are--to be free not only of prejudice against, but +predisposition for; and just as a juryman, when he is empanelled, should +try and sweep his mind bare of everything he has heard about the case +before, so should the Special Missioner--to coin a most horrible +phrase--make his mind at once blank and sensitised, like a photographic +plate, for events to strike as truly as they may, with as little help or +hindrance from former knowledge as possible. + +Human nature being what it is, it is probably almost impossible for the +original attitude to be completely erased, however conscientious one is, +and that is why I am glad that my former attitude was, if not inimical, +at least very unenthusiastic, so that I am clear of the charge of seeing +things as I or the authorities might have wished me to see them. + +And, for the first few days, as always when the mind is plunged headlong +into a new world, though I saw facts, listened to them, was impressed, +very impressed, by their outward show, it still remained outward show, +the soul that informed the whole evaded me, and for many days I saw +things that I only understood later in view of subsequent knowledge, +when I could look back and see more clearly with the mind's eye what I +before had seen with the physical. Yet even the first evening I saw +something which, though only dimly, showed me a hint of the spirit of +the whole. + +I was at the Headquarters of the British Red Cross--which is what the +letters H.Q.B.R.C.S. stand for--and I was being shown some very peculiar +and wonderful charts. They are secret charts, the figures on which, if a +man is shown them, he must never disclose, and those figures, when you +read them, bring a contraction at once of pity and of pride to the +heart. For, on these great charts, that are mapped out into squares and +look exactly like temperature charts at a hospital, are drawn curves, +like the curves that show the fever of a patient. Up in jagged +mountains, down into merciful valleys, goes the line, and at every point +there is a number, and that number is the number of the wounded who were +brought down from the trenches on such a day. Here, on these charts, is +a complete record, in curves, of the rate of the war. Every peak is an +offensive, every valley a comparative lull. + +Sheet after sheet, all with those carefully-drawn numbered curves +zigzagging across them, all showing the very temperature of War.... + +With this difference--that on these sheets there is no "normal." War is +abnormal, and there is not a point of these charts where, when the line +touches it, you can say--"It is well." + +As I looked at these records I began to get a different vision of that +tract of country called "Lines of Communication" which I had come to +see. This, where War's very pulse was noted day by day, was the +stronghold of War himself. Here he is nursed, rested, fed with food for +the mouths of flesh and blood, and food for the mouths of iron; here, +the whole time, night and day, as ceaselessly as in the trenches, the +work goes on, the work of strengthening his hands, and so every man and +woman working for that end in "L. of C." is fighting on our side most +surely. Something of the hugeness and the importance of it began to show +itself. + +And, as regards that particular portion which I had come out to see, I +began to get a glimmering of that also, when it was told me, that of +those thousands of wounded I saw marked on the charts, a great +proportion was convoyed entirely by women. There are whole districts, +such as the Calais district, which includes many towns and stations, +where every ambulance running is driven by a woman. Not only the fever +rate of War is shown on those charts, but just as to the seeing eye, +behind any temperature-chart in a hospital, is the whole construction of +the great scheme--doctors, surgeons, nurses, food, drugs, money, +devotion, everything that finds its expression in that simple sheet of +paper filled in daily as a matter of routine, so behind these charts of +War's temperature kept at H.Q. is the whole of the complex organisation +known as the British Red Cross. And outstanding even amongst so much +that is splendid are certain bands of girls behind the lines, who, not +for a month or two, but year in, year out, during nights and days when +they have known no rest, have they, also, had their fingers on the pulse +of war. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BACKGROUNDS + + +At H.Q.B.R.C.S. the D. of T. told me the first things for me to see were +the F.A.N.Y.'s and the G.S.V.A.D.'s. That is the sort of sentence that +was shot at me on my first day. I have told you what H.Q.B.R.C.S. means; +the D. of T. means Director of Transport; the F.A.N.Y. is the First Aid +Nursing Yeomanry, and the G.S.V.A.D. is the General Service Voluntary +Aid Detachment. Now the V.A.D. I had heard of, and of its members, +always called V.A.D.'s, but G.S.V.A.D. was something new to me. Yet the +importance of the distinction, I soon learned, was great. + +Four sets of initials represented my chief objectives in France, the +F.A.N.Y.'s, the V.A.D.'s, the G.S.V.A.D.'s, and the W.A.A.C.'s. Of these +the former are known as the Fannies, and the last named as the Waacs, +owing to the tendency of the eye to make out of any possible combination +of letters a word that appeals to the ear. Of these four bodies, the +Fannies and the V.A.D.'s were in existence before the war, being amongst +those who listened to the voice of Lord Roberts crying in the +wilderness. They are all unpaid, voluntary workers, and they rank +officially as officers. Among themselves, of course, they have their own +officers, but socially, so to speak, every Fanny and V.A.D. is ranked +with the officers of the Army. But with the G.S.V.A.D.'s and the Waacs +it is not so. They are paid, and are to replace men; G.S.V.A.D.'s work +in motor convoys and at the hospitals, as cooks, dispensers, clerks, +etc., and the Waacs work for the combatant service. Except for their +officers, who rank with officers of the Army, the members of these two +bodies are considered as privates. + +And as both the Fannies and the Waacs go in khaki, and both the V.A.D.'s +and the G.S.V.A.D.'s in dark blue, it will be seen that confusion is +very easy to the uninitiate. That is my only excuse for perpetrating the +worst blunder that has probably ever been committed in France. Taken to +tea at a Fanny convoy I committed the unspeakable sin of asking whether +they were Waacs.... + +They were very kind to me about it, but when I eventually grasped the +system, I saw it was as though I had asked a Brass Hat whether he +belonged to the Salvation Army. Yet when I told the sad tale of my +_gaffe_ to the members of a V.A.D. convoy, they only seemed to think it +must have been quite good for the Fannies ... but somehow it wasn't +equally good for them when I timidly asked whether they were +G.S.V.A.D.'s ... though they were also very kind to me about it. + +The D. of T. motored me over to the Fannies' convoy, on a pale day of +difficult sunlight. Is there anywhere in the world, I wondered, more +depressing--more morbid--landscape, than that round Calais? It weighs on +the soul as a fog upon the senses, and it seemed to me that only people +of such a tenacious gaiety as the French or such an independence from +environment as the British could survive there for long. I have seen +country far flatter that was yet more wholesome, and I loathe flat +country. There is something in the perpetual repetition of form in the +country round Calais, the endless sameness of its differences, that is +peculiarly oppressive. Pearly skies blotted with paler clouds, endless +rows of bare poplars, like the skeletons of dead flames, yellowish roads +unwinding for ever, acres of unbroken and sickly green, of new-turned +earth of an equally sad brown ... and over all the trail of war, whose +footprint is desolation. The occupation even of an army of defence means +camp after camp; tin huts, wooden huts, zinc roofs; hospitals; barbed +wire; mud. And, amidst all this, and the sudden reminders of more active +warfare in houses crumpled to a scatter of rubble by a bomb, there are +people working, year in, year out, undismayed by the sordid litter of +it.... + +The saving of it all to the newcomer, though even that must pall on +anyone too accustomed, is that, like Pater's Monna Lisa, upon this part +of France "the ends of the world are come" ... (and who shall wonder if +in consequence "her eyelids are a little weary"?). Inscrutable Chinamen, +silent as shadows, flashing their sudden smiles, even more mysterious +than their immobility, turned from their labour to watch the passing of +the car; Kaffirs from South Africa, each with a white man's vote, +voluntarily enlisted for the Empire, swung along; vividly dark +Portuguese, clad in grey, came down to their rest camps; Belgians +trotted past with their little tassels bobbing from their jaunty caps. +And, in great droves along the roads, or, sometimes, more solitary in +the fields, the German prisoners stood at gaze, their English escort +shepherding. + +The first time my companion told me we were coming on German prisoners, +I shut my eyes, determined to open them unprejudiced, with a vision +clear of all preconceptions; really, at the bottom of my heart, +expecting that I should find them extraordinarily like anyone else.... +But they were not. They were all so like each other, that by the time +you had seen several hundreds you were still wondering confusedly +whether they were all relations ... even my Western eye detected more +difference between the types of Chinamen I met upon the road than in +these Teutons. Of course, the round brimless cap has something to do +with it, as has the close hair-crop, but when all is said, how much of a +type they are, how amazingly so, as though they had all been bred to one +purpose through generations! The outstanding ear, placed very low on the +wide neck, the great development of cheekbones and of the jaw on a level +with the ears, and then the sudden narrowing at the short chin ... and +the florid bulkiness of them. A detachment of _poilus_ swung past in +their horizon blue, and what a different type was flashed up against +that background of square jowls, what a thin, nervous, wiry type, all +animation.... + +The Germans were so exactly like all the photographs of prisoners one +has seen in the daily papers that it was quite satisfying; I remember +the same feeling of satisfaction when on first going to New England I +saw a frame house and an old man with a goatee beard driving a +spider-wheeled buggy, exactly like an illustration out of _Harper's_.... + +All of which--with the exception of the old man out of _Harper's_--is +not as irrelevant as it may appear, in fact, is not irrelevant at all, +for it is these things, this landscape, these varied races, this whole +atmosphere, which goes to make life's background for everyone quartered +hereabouts, and it is the background which, especially to memory in +after years, makes so great a part of the whole. + +As we went, remember, I still knew nothing about the work I had come out +to see or the lives of those employed in it, I could only watch flashing +past me the outward setting of those lives, and try, from the remarks of +my companion, to build up something else. Yet what I built up from him, +as what I had built up from the talk at my hotel the night before, was +more the attitude of the men towards the women than the attitude of the +women towards their life, though it was none the less interesting for +that. And here I may as well record, what I found at the beginning--and +I saw no reason to reverse my judgment later on--and that was no trace +of sex-jealousy in any department whatsoever. I only met genuine +unemotional, level-headed admiration on the part of the men towards the +women working amongst them. The D. of T. was no exception, and opined +that if the war hadn't done anything else, at least it had killed that +irritating masculine "gag" that women couldn't work together. For that, +after all, will always be to some minds the surprise of the thing--not +that women can work with men, but that they can work together. + +"People talk a lot," he said reflectively, "about what's to happen after +the war ... when it's all over and there's nothing left but to go home. +What's going to happen to all these girls, how will they settle down?" + +"And how do you think...?" + +"I don't think there'll be any trouble whether they marry or not. They +will have had their adventure." + +I looked at him and thought what a penetrating remark that was. Later, +in view of what I came to think and be told, I wondered whether it were +true after all; later still came to what seems to me the solution of it, +or as much of a solution as that can be which still leaves one with an +"I wonder...." + +He told me tales of the Fannies who, being now under the Red Cross, came +directly under his jurisdiction. He told me of a lonely outpost at the +beginning of the war where there was only one surgeon and two Fannies, +and how for twenty-four hours they all three worked, "up to the knees in +blood," amputating, tying up, bandaging, without rest or relief. How the +whole of the work of the convoying of wounded for the enormous Calais +district was done entirely by the girls, of how, at this particular +Fanny convoy to which we were going, they were raided practically every +fine night, and that their camp was in about the "unhealthiest spot," as +regarded raids, in the district. How during the last raid nine aerial +torpedoes fell around the camp, and exploded, and one fell right in the +middle and did not explode, or there would have been very little Fanny +Convoy left ... but how it made a hole seven feet deep and weighed a +hundred and ten pounds and stood higher than a stock-size Fanny. And, +crowning touch of jubilation to the Convoy, of how the French +authorities had promised to present it to them after it was cleaned out +and rendered innocuous, to their no small contentment. As well-earned a +trophy as ever decorated a mess-room.... + +He talked very like a nice father about to show off his girls and back +them against the world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MY FIRST CONVOY + + +We arrived on a great day for the Fannies--the famous Aerial Torpedo had +preceded us by a bare hour. There it lay, on the floor of the mess-room, +reminding me, with its great steel fins and long rounded nose, of a dead +shark. The Commandant showed it us with pride, and every successive +Fanny entering was greeted with the two words--"It's come." The D. of T. +swore he would have it mounted on a brass and mahogany stand with an +engraved plate to tell its history. Two strong Fannies reared it up, for +even empty its weight was noteworthy, and it stood on its murderous nose +with its wicked fins, the solid steel of one of them bent and crumpled +like a sheet of paper, above my head. A great trophy, and a hard-earned +one. + +This was the first camp I saw, and a very good one as camps go. (I +merely add that latter sentence because personally I think any form of +community life the most terrible of hardships.) It is rather pathetic to +see how, in all the camps in France, the girls have managed to get not +only as individual but as feminine touches as possible. I never saw a +woman's office anywhere in France that was not a mass of flowers; and +window-boxes, flower-beds, basins of bulbs, are cultivated everywhere. +Every office, too, though strictly businesslike, has chintz curtains of +lovely colours. You can always tell a woman's office from a man's, which +is a good sign, and should hearten the pessimists who cry that this +doing of men's work will de-feminise the women. + +The Commandant at this Fannies' camp took me into her office, and she +and the D. of T.--who chimed in whenever he thought she was not saying +enough in praise of his admired Fannies--told me the rough outlines of +the history of the body since the beginning of the war. Though now +affiliated to the Red Cross, they were an independent body before the +war, and when hostilities broke out were a mounted corps, with horse +ambulances. They offered themselves to the English authorities, were +refused, and came out to the war-zone and worked for the Belgians for +fourteen months. They ran a hospital in Calais staffed by themselves for +nurses and with Belgian doctors and orderlies. Then, in the beginning of +1916 they offered to drive motor ambulances and thus release Red Cross +men drivers, and now they are running, with the exception of two +ambulances for Chinese, the whole of the Calais district, and have +released many A.S.C. men as well. It is a big area, with many outlying +camps where there are detached units. As a rule, there is only one girl +to each ambulance, but in very lonely spots the allowance is three girls +to two cars. At St. Omer the authorities at first objected to having +them, but now they have taken over the whole of the Red Cross and A.S.C. +ambulances there. + +At this camp that I saw, they have no day or night shifts, as there is +not much night work except during a push, when everyone works night and +day without more than a couple of hours' sleep snatched with clothes +on--indeed, I heard of a convoy where for a fortnight the girls never +took off their clothes, but just kept on with fragmentary rests. The +other occasion when there is night work is when there is a raid. As I +have said, the camp is in a peculiarly unhealthy spot for bombs, and +until just lately the girls had no raid-shelter. Now one has been dug +for them, roofed with concrete and sandbags and earth, which would stand +anything short of a direct hit from some such pleasant little missile as +is now the pride of the camp. + +But at first, even when the raid-shelter was built, there was no +telephone extension to it from the office, and therefore the Commandant +had to stay in the office with one other to take the telephone calls, +then had to cross the open, in full raid, and going to the mouth of the +shelter call out the names of the girls whose turn it was to drive the +ambulances. She told it me as exemplifying the spirit of the girls, that +never once, through all the noise and danger, did a girl falter, always +answered to her name and came coolly and unconcernedly up the steps and +went across to her car. But it seemed to me that it was as good to sit +quietly in a matchboard office and await the messages, to say nothing of +taking them across that danger zone. Now an order has gone forth that +the ambulances are not to start till the raid is over, as they are too +precious to be risked. + +It is not a bad record, this continuous service of the Fannies since the +outbreak of war, is it? + +For remember it is not work that can be taken up and dropped. You sign +on for six months at a time, and only have two fortnights of leave in +the year. And the girls sign on, again and again; they are nearly all +veterans at it. And, comfortable as the camp has been made--all the +necessities of life are provided by the War Office and the "frills" by +the Red Cross--and in spite of the tiny separate cubicles--greatest +blessing of all--decorated to taste by the owner, in spite of everything +that can be done to make the girls happy and keep them well--it is still +a picnic. And a picnic may be all very well for a week or even a +fortnight, but a picnic carried on over the years is not at all the same +thing.... + +Certainly they all seemed very happy, and are all very well. Girls who +go out rather delicate soon become strong in the hard open air life, +and there has not been a single case of strain from working the heavy +ambulances. The girls do all cleaning and oiling of the cars themselves, +and all repairs with the exception of the very complicated cases, for +which they are allowed to call on the help of two mechanics, but only +after the request has gone through those in authority. + +The domestic staff, with the exception of one Frenchwoman in the +kitchen, is supplied by the girls themselves, and on this subject of +domestic staffs in France I shall say more later. Their food is Army +rations, which are excellent, as I can testify after straitened +England--supplemented by milk and fresh vegetables, while the Red Cross +gives the extras of life such as custard, cornflower, etc. + +When at tea I saw butter brought forth in a lordly dish and was told to +take as much as I liked on hot toast, I felt it was a solemn moment. +There seemed a very care-free atmosphere about the Fannies, and at this +camp the Commandant was known as "Boss," a respectful familiarity I did +not meet anywhere else. Some irreverent soul had even inscribed it on +the door of her cubicle. The Fannies "break out," so to speak, all over +the place; even the bath-room is not sacred to them. It is a pathetic +sight, that bath-room of the Fannies, more pathetic, I thought it, after +I had seen the rows of big baths in other camps. The Fannies have a +limited and capricious water supply, and their bath is so small as to +remove forcibly the temptation for one person to use it all up. Perched +on two stalks of stone stands a long bath in miniature, long enough to +sit in with the knees up, but of no known human size. Inscribed above +it--(under a fresco in black and white of cats in the moonlight)--are +these touching words: "Do not turn on the hot water when the cold is off +or the Boiler will Bust." + +Everything I have been saying and describing is external, I know, but +you see I was still grasping at externals, though underneath certain +things were beginning to worry me. But I couldn't bring myself to voice +anything I was wondering to these splendid strangers; later, though I +never was with any one convoy more than a night, still I got the feeling +that seeing so many of them had made me more familiar with the ones I +happened to be with at the time, and so I screwed myself up to the point +and was richly rewarded. But that, as Mr. Kipling would say, is another +story. + +We drove away in the windy evening, past the parked rows of great glossy +ambulances, and I bore with me chiefly an impression of gaiety, of a set +purpose, of a certain schoolgirlish humour and that knack of making the +best of everything which community life engenders when it does not do +exactly the reverse; of long wooden huts that might have been bare but +were decked with pictures, patterned chintzes, bookshelves, cushions; +and above all, I took an impression of a certain quality that I can only +describe as "stark" in the girls, though that is too bleak a word for +what I mean. It is a sort of splendid austerity, that pervades their +look and their outlook, that spiritually works itself out in this +determined sticking at the job, this avoidance of any emotion that +interferes with it, and in their bodies expresses itself in a disregard +for appearances that one would never have thought to find in human +woman. It leaves you gasping. They come in, windblown, reddened, hot +with exertion, after recklessly abandoning their hands to all the harsh +treatment of a car--the sacrifice of the hands is no small one, and +every girl driving a car makes it--they come in, toss their caps down, +brush their hair back from their brow in the one gesture that no woman +has ever permitted to herself or liked in a lover--and they don't mind. + +It is amazing, that disregard for appearances, but of course it is +partly explained by the fact that the natural tendency in young things +would be to accentuate anything of that kind once it was discovered ... +and for the rest--I really think they are too intent on what they are +doing and care too little about themselves or what anyone may be +thinking of them. What a blessed freedom!... This at last is what it is +to be as free as a man. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OUTPOSTS + + +It is a matter of temperament whether community life, with its enforced +lack of individualism, or the intense refraction engendered by the fact +of two people only living together in a solitude, is the more trying. In +the former state one may hope to attain isolation from the very +superabundance of personalities all around, but for the latter there is +at least this to be said, that if the two feel like leaving each other +alone there is no distraction of noise and presences. Either is a test +to persons who are sensitive about their right to solitude, a greater +one than to those who mix happily with their fellow humans. Both are to +be found in their best expression among the English girls in France. +From the Fanny convoy to a lonely rest station was a change that set me +thinking over the problem, a problem in which I was a mere observer, but +which all these girls had solved each in her different way, doubtless, +but as far as I could tell, to the nicest hair-fine edge of success. + +My first rest station was in an out-of-the-way little place, bleak and +treeless, and consisted of a wooden hut built alongside the railway +line. In this hut lived the two V.A.D.'s who ran the show--which means +that they do the cooking for themselves and for the trains which they +supplied with food, that they dispense medicines for the patients who +appear daily at sick parade, and give first aid to accidents, change +dressings if any cases on a hospital train need it, feed +stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers, whose hours often prevent them +getting back to billets for regular meals, take in nurses who are either +arriving or leaving by a night train and would otherwise have nowhere to +go, and in their spare time--if you can imagine them having any--grow +their own vegetables, and make bandages, pillows, and other supplies for +the troops. Just two girls, voluntary unpaid workers, who are nurses, +needle-women, doctors, chemists, gardeners and general servants, and +whose work can never be done, or, when done, has to begin at once all +over again. No recreation except what they find in books and themselves, +nowhere to go, and that perpetual silhouette of railway trucks and the +hard edge of station roof out of the window, of shabby houses and their +own tiny yard at the back, the noise of shunting and train whistling in +their ears night and day, and with it all--worst touch of the lot--to +have to do their own work for themselves. + +To slave for others all day as long as you can come in and find things +ready for you at night--your hot cocoa in its cup and your hot-water +bag--that great consolation of the women members of the B.E.F.--in your +bed, is endurable. But to come in and have no cocoa if you don't make it +yourself, no bag if you don't see to it--that is a different affair, and +that is where these two girls seemed to me to touch a point that of +necessity the others I had seen did not. And now that women are doing +men's work it is to be supposed they have found out the value of meals +and no longer look on an egg with one's tea as the greatest height to +which nourishment need rise, and hence have honourably to set about +cooking for themselves--and there is no woman but will understand the +boredom of that--the rations that a paternal army insists on showering +upon them. Under such circumstances to work is human, but to eat divine. + +As I stepped out of the car at the door, feeling terribly impertinent at +this rolling round in luxury to gaze at the work of my betters, one of +the V.A.D.'s came to the door of the shanty to greet us. She was a fair +creature, with windblown yellow hair and a smut which kindly accident +had placed exactly like an old-time patch upon the curve of one flushed +cheek. She was wrapped in a big pinafore of butcher blue, and explained +that she was "cleaning up." + +It all looked very clean to me, certainly the little dispensary, the +room into which you first walked, was spotless, everything ranged ready +for Sick Parade, glass, white enamel, metal, shining in the shaft of +sunlight which came palely in at the open doorway. To the left was the +kitchen, stone-floored, fitted with an English stove, to the right the +tiny slip of sitting-room from which opened the two still narrower +little bedrooms. That was all. + +This is the atmosphere in which the two girls live, but, as usual, they +have done everything that is possible with it. Brilliant curtains, +pictures, rows of books--the rest stations keep up a sort of circulating +library, exchanging their books from time to time amongst themselves by +way of the ambulance trains, which are thus supplied with a library +also--and charming pottery ranged along the shelves. The rest stations +rather make a point of their pottery. It is their tradition always to +drink out of bowls instead of cups, and their plates have the triumphant +Gallic cock, in bravery of prismatic plumage, striding across them. + +After I had said good-bye to the golden girl of the inspired smut, I +went on to a bigger rest station at a terminus and was in time to lunch +there. It was a more sophisticated affair than that which I had left, +yet when this rest station was started, at the beginning of the war, its +habitation was a railway truck--for the romance of which some of those +who were there in that first rush, when you were never off your feet +for twenty-four hours at a time, sometimes sigh.... + +Now part of the station buildings has been partitioned off for them, and +there is a fairly big dispensary, with a bed for dressings and accident +cases, of which quite a number are brought in, a kitchen, a little +dining-room where all the furniture is home-made--deep chairs out of +barrels and the like--and behind that a big storeroom, crammed from +floor to ceiling with stores. The girls do not sleep here, but in +billets at the town, but they have to provide meals at any hour and meet +all the ambulance trains with food and extra comforts. + +We had a very good lunch, of stew and onions and potatoes, big bowls of +steaming coffee, and a pudding with raisins, all cooked by one of the +V.A.D. domestic staff, who always had to slip into her place last to eat +it, and get out of it first to serve the next course. I saw only these +two rest stations, each typical in its way, the one of the isolated and +the other of the central kind, but they are scattered up and down the +line, varying in character according to the needs of the particular +place. + +At one, for instance, there is a small ward attached, where slight +cases, not bad enough to be admitted to the hospital, and yet requiring +some attention, can be kept for a day or two, thus possibly avoiding +serious illness. Near to this same one is a Labour Battalion, many of +the men from which are out-patients whose medical inspection is held at +the rest station. Near another is a large convalescent camp, the O.C. of +which looks to the V.A.D.'s of the rest station for help in various +ways. + +At them all there is always the work of feeding the stretcher-bearers +and ambulance drivers, who in times of pressure have to spend many hours +at their work of unloading the trains without any chance of getting a +regular meal. In the early days of the rest stations, when the ambulance +trains were often merely improvised, food and dressings had to be +provided for all the wounded on board, but now, when the working of the +British Red Cross is as near perfection as any human organisation well +can be, the men have every care taken of them on the perfectly-fitted +trains. Yet there is much attention given to the sick and wounded of +every nation who come in on the trains, attention chiefly consisting of +the giving of extra comforts--cocoa, lemons, shirts, slippers, +cigarettes, cushions--and the re-dressing of wounds, while a great deal +as well as feeding them is done for the staffs of the trains, for whom, +besides the lending library, an exchange of gramophone records and of +laundry has been arranged. + +Perhaps the most interesting thing to note about the rest stations is +that they are one of the few points of contact between the members of +the B.E.F. and the French population. Our camps, our hospitals, our +motor convoys, are all little Englands in themselves, but every morning +to the sick parade of these rest stations come not only the local +V.A.D.'s and ambulance drivers, but the French civilian population as +well, and in greater and greater numbers. Accidents are brought to a +rest station very often in preference to being taken anywhere else, and +anxious mothers bring Jean or Marie when a mysterious ailment shows +itself in untoward spot or sneeze. The Gallic cock is more than a +decoration as he strides across the pottery of the rest stations--he is +become a symbol as well. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES + + +When I spoke at H.Q. of the depression I found in all the landscape +around and of its peculiar morbid quality, nearly everyone assured me +that I should find the country round E----, whither I was going, far +more depressing. "There is nothing but sand dunes and huts, miles of +huts, hospitals and camps and so on...." It did not sound very +delightful. + +But to differing vision, differing effects, and personally, I loved +E----; terrible as cities of huts generally are, here they seemed to me +to have lost much of their terror. I loved the long rippling lines of +dunes, the decoration of hundreds of tall pines that came partly against +the sandy pallor, partly against the vivid steely blue of the river +beyond, I loved the bare woods we passed all along the road, the trees +still not perceptibly misted with buds but giving, with their myriads of +fine massed twigs, an effect of clouded wine-colour. And was there ever +such a countryside for magpies? Superstition dies before their numbers, +helpless to count them, so far are they beyond the range of sorrow, +mirth, marriage and birth, at any one glance. Everywhere through those +winey woods there went up the fanlike flutter of black-and-white, the only +positive notes in all the delicate universe, compact of pearly skies, dim +purples of earth, and pale irradiation of the sun. + +[Illustration: H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A "VAD" DOMESTIC STAFF] + +[Illustration: A V. A. D. MOTOR CONVOY] + +[Illustration: WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY] + +[Illustration: WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN] + +On the roads there was the usual medley of the races of the world, added +to as we neared E---- by Canadian nurses in streaming white veils and +uniforms of brilliant blue, and also--for surely the most delightful of +created blessings may rank as a race of the world--by the glossy golden +war-dogs, who also have their training camp near here, and take their +walks abroad, waving their plumy tails and jumping up on their masters, +like any leisured dog at home. + +But--to my sorrow--I was not sent to look at war-dogs, and so had to +pass by and leave the wagging plumes behind. I had several ends in view +at E----; I had to see the large Waac camp there, its outflung +ramifications, and the work that the Waacs did in the men's camps; and I +had to see the V.A.D. Motor Convoy, at which I was to spend a night. +Incidentally, I had high hopes of getting permission to go out in an +ambulance with the latter, though it is against the most sacred Army +Orders for anyone not in uniform to be seen upon an ambulance. Here I +may say that the permission was granted by a powerful individual known +as the D.D.M.S., though he mentioned that being shot at dawn was the +least painful thing that ought to happen to me for doing it. + +I was going first to the Waac headquarters, to see the Area Controller, +who corresponds to an Area Commandant in the V.A.D.'s and whose rank +approximates to that of a Major. She is supreme in her area and only the +Chief Controller of the Waacs is above her. Below her are her Unit +Administrators, who are in charge of units and approximate to captains, +and have their Deputy and Assistant Administrators whom for convenience' +sake we can classify as lieutenants and second lieutenants. + +This is the place to say frankly that I had heard--as had we all--"the +rumors" that were flying round about the Women's Army. They "weren't a +success," ... "it had been found to be unworkable ..." and, as reason, a +more specific charge. Need I say what that specific charge was? What is +it that always jumps to the mind of the average materialist? The most +innocent thing in the world--in itself--and the cause of most of the +scandal since the dawn of civilisation. A Baby. + +There is a certain type of mind which always jumps to babies, apparently +looking on them as the Churchmen of the Middle Ages looked on women--as +the crowning touch of evil in an evil world. If you remember, there was +great agitation in certain quarters at the beginning of the war, over +"War-Babies." They were going to inundate the country, they were going +to be a very serious proposition indeed. The Irish question, +Conscription, Conscientious Objectors, were going to be as nothing to +the matter of the War-Babies. It is perhaps from some points of view a +pity that the War-Babies didn't materialize, but that of course is +another question altogether. "Passons oultre," as the great Master of +delicate--and indelicate--situations used to say. + +The point as regards the Women's Army is that the whole of the agitation +against it is a libel, and one which decent people should be ashamed to +circulate even as supposititious. Quite apart from the evidence of my +own ears and eyes, at various camps I was supplied with the official +statistics for the Women's Army from March of 1917 to February of 1918. +And of these women who "have not been a success," as the mischievous +gossip has had it, how many do you think have proved failures out of six +thousand? In the time mentioned fourteen have been sent home for +incompetence, without any slur on their characters; twenty-three for +lack of discipline, mostly in the early days when the girls did not +realise what being in the Army meant and thought if they wanted to go to +any particular place there was no reason why they shouldn't; and fifteen +who were already _enceinte_ before leaving England and which even the +most censorious can hardly lay to the charge of the B.E.F. And of all +that six thousand what percentage do you suppose has had to be sent back +for what is euphemistically known, I believe, as "getting into trouble," +since landing in France? No percentage at all, if I may express myself +thus unmathematically, but exactly five cases. Five, out of six +thousand. Compare that with the morality of any village in England, or +anywhere else in the world, and then say, if you dare to be so obviously +dishonest, that there is any reason why the Women's Army should be +aspersed. + +These statistics were given to me at the office of the Area Controller, +and later repeated at the Women's Army H.Q. by the Controller in Chief, +but on that first sunny morning amongst the pines and pale golden +sand-dunes it was naturally the human and individual side rather than +any of figures, however startling, that claimed the mind the most. For +one thing, I had the actual organisation and attributes of the Women's +Army to learn. I knew nothing. The actual working knowledge, apart from +impressions and things learnt only by seeing them, that I gathered +during the days I spent at various Waac centres is as follows: + +The Women's Army differs from the F.A.N.Y. and the V.A.D. in being a +paid instead of a voluntary body, in being directly under the Army, not +the Red Cross, and in its members being ranked as privates. But it also +differs from the G.S.V.A.D., though that too is paid and its members +rank as privates. The G.S.V.A.D. is far more "mixed"; its members are of +all classes and educations, and are drafted off for work accordingly, +but the bulk of the Waacs are working girls and do manual labour, such +as gardening, cooking, baking, scrubbing, etc., though there are amongst +them girls of a more specialised education who are signallers and +clerks. The officers, of course, are women of education who have +undergone a stiff training and been carefully selected for the posts +they fill. For, as will be seen, nearly everything depends upon the Waac +officers; they have certainly a greater power for good or harm than the +officers in the Regular Army, and never were both the force and danger +of personality more acutely illustrated than in the position of the Waac +leaders. + +A Unit Administrator has to know individually every girl in her camp, +though there may be several hundreds. She has to blend with her absolute +authority a maternal interest and supervision. While she has no power to +say whom a girl shall or shall not "walk out" with, she yet makes it her +business to know what choice of men friends the girl makes and to +influence, as far as she can, that choice towards discretion. She must +not nag but must inculcate by subtle methods a realisation of what is +due to the uniform, a sense of the "idea," the "symbol," of it. She +does not actually say to a girl that she is not to walk arm in arm with +a Tommy or pin her collar with her paste brooch, but she conveys to her +that these things are not done in the best uniforms.... And the girl +learns with incredible rapidity. A thing is Not Done--what a potency in +those words; in that attitude of mind! It probably influenced the +earliest savages in the manner of wearing their cowries. + +After all, the whole idea of uniform, of distinguishing one caste from +another by bits of different coloured cloth, is based on the instinct +for being superior. Was it not John Selden who said something to the +effect that our rulers have always tried to make themselves as different +from us as possible? Of course they have, and it is exactly the same +thing which the wise Pope Gregory VII had in mind when he definitely +crystallised the measures for celibacy of the priesthood, and it is +exactly the same thing which puts the policeman into a dark blue uniform +and a helmet before he can so much as stop a milkcart. A policeman in +plain clothes is a dethroned monarch. Nothing in the nature of +controlling others was ever done without dressing up. The marvel is that +for so many centuries the principle should have been confined to the +masculine sex, when it has such an obvious appeal to the feminine. + +This principle when carried a step further and applied to those +controlled, by giving them also the sensation of being different from +the rest of the world, results in that spirit called _esprit de corps_, +which is really _esprit de l'uniforme_. Towards the rest of the world +the uniformed are proud of being different, amongst themselves proud of +being alike, and the more alike, so to speak, the aliker. It is not a +thing to treat scornfully, for it has the whole of symbolism behind it. +That which makes a man cheerfully die for a piece of bunting which, +prosaically speaking, _is_ only a piece of bunting that happens to be +dyed red, white, and blue, is part of this same spirit. Dull of soul +indeed must he be who can look without a profound emotion on the +tattered "colours" of a regiment, and yet it is only the idea, the +symbol, that makes these things what they are.... + +And for most of these girls, remember, it is the first time they have +had a symbol held before them.... We of the upper classes are brought up +with many reverences--for our superiors, our elders, for traditions, but +the classes which for want of a better word I must call "lower"--so +please do not cavil at me for doing so or attribute false meanings--are +for the most part brought up to think themselves as good as anyone else, +and their "rights" the chief thing in life; while owing to the +unfortunate curriculum of our Board Schools, which does not insist +nearly enough on history as the fount of the present and of all that is +great and good in the past, they are left without those standards of +impersonal enthusiasms and imaginative daring--which should be the +rightful inheritance of us all. + +These girls are now given an abstract idea to live up to, no mere +standard of expediency, but an idea that appeals to the imagination. And +how magnificently they are responding those statistics show, but more +still does the attitude of all the officers and men who have to do with +them. I talked with all ranks on the subject, and never once did I meet +with anything but admiration and enthusiasm. The men are touchingly +grateful to them and value their work and their companionship. For, very +wisely, the girls are encouraged to be friends with the men, are allowed +to walk out with them, to give teas and dances for them in the Y.W.C.A. +huts, and to go to return parties given by the men in the Y.M.C.A. huts. +It is, of course, easy to sneer at the ideal which is held before the +men, of treating these girls as they would their sisters, but the fact +remains that they very beautifully do so. + +Another point to be remembered is, that, far from these girls being +exposed to undue temptation, the great majority of them have never been +so well looked after as now. They are mostly girls of a class that knows +few restrictions, who, with the exception of those previously in +domestic service, have always had what they call their "evenings," when +they roamed the streets or went to the cinemas with their "boys." + +Now every Waac has to be in by eight, can go nowhere without permission, +is carefully though unostentatiously shepherded, and is provided with +healthy recreation, such as Swedish exercises, Morris dancing, hockey, +and the like. In short, she is now looked after and guarded as young +girls of the educated classes are normally. + +And these are the girls, good, honest, hard-working creatures, who have +been maligned in whispers and giggles up and down the country. It is +perhaps needless to say that they are naturally very indignant over it, +that the parents of many write to them agitatedly to demand if it's all +true and to beg them to come back, and that sometimes, when they are +home on leave, instead of their uniforms bringing them the respect and +honour they deserve and which every man overseas accords to them, they +are subjected to insult from people who have nothing better to do than +to betray to the world the pitiable condition of their own nasty minds. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE BROWN GRAVES + + +When first one has dealings with the Waacs and their officers, one +imagines distractedly that one has fallen among Royalty. This is because +the word "Ma'am" is always used by a Waac when speaking to another of +superior rank, till you very nearly find yourself bobbing. Later this +impression is strengthened by the memory for faces which every Waac +officer displays in a manner one has always been taught to consider +truly royal. It is only among themselves that any titles exist; to the +outside world, even the Army officers, each Waac officer is mere "Mrs." +or "Miss," whichever she may chance to be. The "putting on of frills" +has been avoided with extraordinary dexterity; there is just enough +ritual to make the girls feel they belong to an organised body, without +the enemy being given occasion to blaspheme by saying that women like +playing at being men. In France, though not in England, the girls salute +their officers, as this helps them to get at the "idea" of the +thing--that feeling of being part of an ordered whole, which is so +valuable. + +In the matter of uniforms, someone at the War Office, or wherever these +things are thought out, has really had a rather charming series of +inspirations. At first the women wore the same badges as denote the +ranks of soldiers, but a paternal--or should one not almost say +maternal?--Government evidently thought that not feminine enough, and +now the badges of varying rank are roses, fleur-de-lys and laurel +leaves, a touch which would have delighted old Andrew Marvell. + +One of the chief activities of the Waacs is cooking, and when, escorted +by the D.D.M.S., whom I have before mentioned, I arrived at the little +wooden office amidst the pines, it was to hear a one-sided conversation +on the telephone between the Area Controller and various great ones of +the earth who were frantically ringing up for cooks. Also a new +Officers' Club for senior officers wanting a rest from the firing line +is just being opened near E----, and it is to be staffed by Waacs and +the cook is to be of the very best. Punch's immortal advice as to the +treatment of husbands is not forgotten by the Waac controllers when +questions of this kind arise. + +After talk of cooks came the seeing of cooks, in a big camp and Small +Arms school near. Kitchens are kitchens and mess-rooms mess-rooms +everywhere you go, and beyond a general impression of extreme +cleanliness, an extraordinarily appealing smell of stew, and the sight +of great branches of mimosa set about the long mess tables, there is +nothing of particular interest to describe. The point is that all the +preparing and the serving of food in this great camp for officers and +men is done by women and that all the male creatures are unreservedly +jubilant at the change. The C.O. expressed his hope that after the war +the W.A.A.C. would continue as a permanent part of the Army, while a +sergeant gave it as his opinion that the women managed to introduce so +much more variety into the preparation of the food than the men had +done. Also, he added that they wasted much less. + +In every kitchen there is a forewoman cook--there are these forewomen in +every department of the work of the women, and they correspond rather to +the "noncoms" among the men. At present they are distinguished by a +bronze laurel leaf and always have their own mess-room and sitting-room +as distinct from the rest of the girls, but it is rather an influence +than an authority which is vested in them, though the advisability of +definitely endowing them with more of the latter is being considered. +They "answer," as the rest of the Waac machinery does, extremely well. + +An interesting point about army kitchens, as they are run nowadays, is +that after the amount of fats necessary to the cooking has been put +aside, the rest is poured into great tins, graded according to its +quality, and sent home for munitions. We are getting things down to the +fine edge of no-waste at last, and the women are helping to do it. + +At another camp I found the C.O. most anxious for the women to start a +Mending Factory--it would be such a help to the men, who, unlike +sailors, are not adept at the repairing of their clothes. Also a +laundry, he intimated, would be necessary really to round off the scheme +satisfactorily. Both these are thoroughly sound suggestions that may +yet, let us hope, come to something, though they would be in a sense +breaking new ground, as the idea of the Waacs is that they actually +replace men. Each cook releases one man, while among the clerks at +present the ratio is four women to three men. And there are already six +thousand Waacs in France.... Does not this give the obvious reason why +slanders, started by enemy agents, have been busy trying to drive the +Women's Army out of France? + +Every Waac who goes to France is like the pawn who attains the top of +the chessboard and is exchanged for a more valuable piece. She sends a +fighting man to his job by taking on the jobs that are really a woman's +after all. For is it not woman's earliest job to look after man? + +She looks after him to keep him well and strong, she looks after him +when he is ill--and now, in France, she looks after the gallant dead, +who are lying in the soil for which they fought. Between the pines and +the gleaming river with its sandy shoals are the rows of crosses, +sparkling, the ash grey wood of them, in the effulgence of the spring +light, making hundreds of points of brightness above the earth still +brown and bare, that soon, under the gardeners' care, will blossom like +the rose. Not a desert even now--for no place where fighters rest is a +desert--but a place expectant, full of the promise of beauty to come, an +outward beauty which is what it calls for as its right, because it is +holy ground. Not only in the merely technical sense as the consecrated +earth of quiet English cemeteries, where lie all, both those who lived +well and those who lived basely, but holy as a place can only be when it +is held by those who all died perfectly.... + +Here and there, among the earth-brown graves, stooping above them, are +the earth-brown figures of the gardeners. Every grave is freshly raked, +moulded between wooden frames to a flat, high surface where the flowers +are to overflow, and above every raised daïs of earth the bleached wood +of the cross spreads its arms, throwing a shadow soft and blue like a +dove's feather, a shadow that curves over the mound and laps down its +edge lightly as a benison. On each cross is the little white metal plate +giving the name and regiment of the man who lies beneath and the letters +R.I.P. Here and there is an ugly stiff wreath of artificial immortelles +beneath a glass frame, the pathetic offering of those who came from +England to lay it there. + +Sometimes a wreath fresh and green shows that someone who loves the dead +man has sent money with a request that flowers shall be bought and put +upon his grave on the anniversary of his death. Sometimes, when they +come over from England, these poor people break down and turn blindly, +as people will for comfort, to the nearest sympathy, to the women +gardeners who are showing them the grave they came to see. And a sudden +note of that deep undercurrent which at times of stress always turns the +members of either sex to their own sex for comfort sends the women +mourners to the arms of the women who are working beside them. +Sentiment, if you will--but a sentiment that is stirred up from the deep +and which would scorn the apologies of the critical. + +And what of the girls who work daily on that sacred earth, who see +before their eyes, bright in the sun, inexpressibly grey and dauntless +in the rain, those serried rows of crosses, all so alike and each +standing for a different individuality, a different heartbreak--Do you +suppose that they will ever again forget the aspect of those silent +witnesses to the splendour and the unselfishness and the utter release +from pettiness of the men who lie there? This is what it is to make good +citizens, and that is what the members of the Women's Army are doing +daily. They are not only doing great things for the men--but they are +making of themselves, come what conditions may after the war, efficient, +big-minded citizens who will be able to meet with them. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VIGNETTES + + +The interesting thing about the various places where Waacs are housed, +which I saw, is that no two of them were alike in atmosphere. I had +rather dreaded much seeing of camps, but, as a matter of fact, though I +saw two, they were totally unlike each other, while the other three +places that I saw each had an aspect, a character, unlike the others. +One was a convalescent home for Waacs, set amidst pine-trees, a house of +deep wide stairs, airy rooms, long cushioned chairs, and flowers, where +one might well be content to be just-not-well for a long time; the +others were houses where those Waacs lived who were not in camps. + + * * * * * + +Four jaunty châlets, chalk-white in the sun, hung with painted +galleries, face the rolling sand-dunes, behind them the sea, a darker +blue than any of the shadows of land on such a high-keyed day. They are +little pleasure-villas, these châlets, fancy erections for summer +visitors, built in the days when this little Plage was a resort for +Parisians playing at rusticity. Delicious artificial useless-looking +creations, bearing apparently about as much relation to a normal house +as a boudoir-cap does to a bowler. Yet they are charming as only little +French pleasure-villas can be, and to the receptive mind it is their +artificiality that makes such a delightful note of--well, not decadence, +but dilettantism--in this rolling sandy place, where only the hand of +Nature is to be seen all around, no town, no village even, impinging on +the curving skylines, the very road up to their doors but a track in the +sand. + +In these villas live incongruous Waacs, their khaki-clad forms swing up +the wooden stairs to the galleries, and lean from the windows, always +open their widest, night and day. Less incongruous the stout boots and +khaki inside, as, though the chintzes are bright and gay, there is an +aspect of stern utility, combined with an austerity that somehow suits +the blank sandiness of the surroundings. In each little scrubbed room +are two beds, each--for the Waacs live in true Army fashion--with its +dark grey blankets folded up at the head of the bare mattress; in the +sick bay alone the beds are covered with bright blue counterpanes. In +the recreation room and the Forewomen's Mess are easy chairs of wicker +and flowers and pictures. It is all done as charmingly as it can be with +a strict eye to suitability; it is community life, of course, but +brought as nearly as possible to that feeling of individuality which +makes a home with a small "h" instead of with the dreaded capital. + + * * * * * + +This other house was as great a contrast to the bare little châlets as +it well could be. It also was at a Plage, it too had been built for +pleasure, but for pleasure _de luxe_, not of simple bourgeois families. +The wide hall with its polished floor, its great carved mantels, its +dining-room with gleaming woods and glossy table and sparkling glass, +its big lounge with tall windows, where the girls dance and play the +piano--all was as different from the bleached scrubbed wood of the +châlets as it well could be. Yet the spirit informing the whole was the +same, the bedrooms as austere in essence even if they boasted carved +marble-topped chests, and even here the Army had found things to +improve, such as the making of paths at the back of the house of round +tins sunk in the earth, and steps of tin biscuit boxes, ingenious +arrangements to save getting your feet wet on a muddy day as you go in +and out on the endless errands of domesticity. And, as I sat at lunch in +the gleaming dining-room, where the wood fire burned on the wide stone +hearth, I heard the girls practising for a musical play they were +shortly to produce. + + * * * * * + +A camp is, of course, a camp, but there is a certain satisfaction in +seeing how well even a necessary evil can be done. Where all was +excellent, the chief thing that really thrilled me was the bath-rooms. +The Waacs' bath-rooms are the envy and despair of the Army, who rage +vainly in small canvas tubs. The Engineers are by way of spoiling the +Waacs whenever possible, and bath-rooms, electric bells, electric light +and fancy paths of tin, spring up before them. There are in every Waac +camp rows of bath-rooms containing each its full-length bath, and +besides that, each girl has her own private wash-place, in a cubicle for +the purpose. For, as the Chief Controller said to me, "After all, it +does not matter the girls having to sleep together in dormitories if +each has absolute privacy for washing, that is so much more important." +To which it is quite possible to retort that there are those of us who +would not mind bathing in front of the whole world if only we are +allowed to sleep by ourselves. But that is just a different point of +view, and as a matter of fact, for the class from which the greater part +of the Waacs are drawn, privacy in ablutions ranks as a greater thing +than privacy in slumber, so the psychological instinct which planned the +camps is justified. + +Besides the bath-rooms and the ablution cubicles, there is in every camp +one or more drying-rooms, which are always heated, and where the wet +clothes of the girls, who of course have to be out in all weathers, are +hung to dry. Laundry, kitchens, recreation rooms, mess-rooms, long +Nissen huts for sleeping, I went the round of them all, and, while +genuinely admiring them, admired still more those who lived in them. + +Personally, I don't like a Nissen hut nearly as much as the ordinary +straight-walled sort. I know they are wonderfully easy to erect and to +move, but when it comes to trying to tack a picture on those curved +walls.... And the girls depend so on their little bits of things, such +as pictures and photographs from home. You will always see in every +cubicle, above every bed in a long hut, the girl's own private gallery, +the _lares and penates_ which make of her, in her bed at least, an +individual. In a Nissen hut you have to turn your head upside down to +get a view of the picture gallery at all, though it has its advantages +to the girl herself as she lies in bed and can look at the faces of her +parents, absolutely concave, curving over her nose. + +As I was leaving this camp I heard sounds of music and the stamping of +feet, and going to the Y.W.C.A. hut the Unit Administrator and I looked +in. There, to a vigorously pounded piano, an instructress from the +Y.M.C.A. was teaching a dozen or so girls Morris dancing. They beamed at +us from hot glowing faces, these mighty daughters of the plough, and +continued to foot it as merrily, if as heavily, as any Elizabethan +villagers dancing in their Sunday smocks around a Maypole. + + * * * * * + +One more camp I saw, on a later day, and though it was a camp, yet it +had that about it which distinguished it from all others. For it was +built round about a hoary castle, grey with years and lichen, from whose +walls they say Anne Boleyn looked down, standing beside her robust and +rufous lover on that honeymoon which was almost all of happiness she was +to know. + +Now it is an Army School, and within its grey walls and towers the +officers are billeted and in its great kitchens the Waacs cook for them +and do all the rest of the domestic work, waiting on the officers' mess +and the sergeants' mess, serving at the canteen, doing all the cleaning, +everything that there is to be done for a whole army school of hungry +men down on a five-weeks' course, to say nothing of all the work for +themselves in their camp at the castle's gates, and there are sixty-six +of them, not counting the three officers who are at every Waac camp--the +Unit Administrator, and the Deputy and Assistant Administrators. It is +hard work, and endless work, and though every Waac gets a few hours off +every day, and though, as you have seen, everything is done for their +healthy recreation that can be done, yet the life is one of work and not +of fun, and though the girls flourish under it, we at home should not +forget that fact when we give them their due meed of appreciation. + +But, hard as the life is, it seemed to me that at that camp which has +the happiness to be at this castle, its duress must be assuaged by the +beauty of what is always before the eyes. Buried in woods it is, still +bare when I saw them, but with the greenish yellow buds of daffodils +already beginning to unfold in great clumps through the purple-brown +alleys, and with primroses making drifts of honey-pallor and +honey-sweetness beside the slopes of ground ivy, while from beyond the +curving ramparts of the castle shows the steely-quiet glimmer of a lake. + +For war this castle was built, and war she now sees once again, for the +arts of war are taught within her walls. And how Anne Boleyn's roving +eyes would have brightened at the sight of so much youth, at the sound +of so many spurs! Let us hope her sore spirit can still find pleasure in +wandering again over the scenes where she once was happy, and if she has +kept enough of innocent wantonness to love a straight man when she sees +one, ghost though she be, and if her nose turn up ever so daintily at +the clumsily-clad members of her own sex, whose toils she would so +little understand ... why, she is but a ghost, and the modern mind must +contrive to forgive her. + + * * * * * + +These slight vignettes have all been of vision; let me add one of a less +pictorial nature. The Unit Administrators, as I have said, have to act +not only as commanding officers, but very often as mother-confessors as +well. Parents write to them about their daughters, would-be suitors +write to them for permission to marry their charges, and amongst the +letter-bag are often epistles that are not without their unconscious +humour. One day a mother writes to point out that she and the rest of +the family are changing houses, and so may Flossie please come home for +a few days ... another mentions that Gladys's letters of late have been +despondent, and please could she be put to something else that will not +depress her? Then Gladys is had up in front of the Unit Administrator, +and perhaps turns out to be one of the born whiners found everywhere, +perhaps to be merely suffering from a passing fit of what our +ancestresses would have called the megrims. If her work is found to be +really unfitted to her and it is possible to give her a change, then it +is done, but as a rule that is seldom the case, as, rather differently +from what we used to hear was the way in the Army, every Waac Controller +finds out what the girl is best at and what she likes doing most, and +then, as far as possible, arranges her work accordingly. + +Perhaps a letter comes from a Tommy in His Majesty's forces, and begins +something like this:-- + + "DEAR MADAM, + + "I beg to ask your permission to marry Miss D. Robinson, at + present under your command...." + +The Unit Administrator writes back that she will endeavour to arrange +leave for the marriage; and perhaps all goes well, or perhaps some such +lugubrious letter as this will follow:-- + + "DEAR MADAM, + + "_Re_ Miss D. Robinson, at present under your command, take no + notice of my former letter, as Miss D. Robinson has broken off + the engagement...." + +Human nature will be inhuman, in camps and out of them, and because Miss +D. Robinson is doing a man's work is no reason why she should shed the +privileges of her sex. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +EVENING + + +Grey rain was falling in straight thin lines upon the landscape, +suddenly changed from its splendour of sun-bright sands and blue +gleaming river to a blotted greyness. The rain danced over the trampled +earth at the V.A.D. Motor Convoy Camp, filling the hollows with wrinkled +water and making the great ambulances shine darkly. It was not a +pleasant evening, being very cold withal, and snow fell amid the rain, +but the Commandant took me out in her car to give me as comprehensive a +view of E---- as could be seen in the gathering dusk. + +When I say E---- I don't mean the little French fishing village, near +which we did not go, but the whole vast town of huts set up by the +B.E.F. For E---- is become a town of hospitals. We swung round corners, +down long intersecting roads, about and about, and always there were +hospitals, long rows of hospitals, each a little town in itself. I was +reminded of nothing so much as the great temporary townships in the +Canal Zone at Panama. There is just the same look of permanence +combined with the feeling of it all being but temporary, while +materially there is an air about board and tin buildings which is the +same the world over. I almost expected to see a negro slouch along with +his tools slung on his back, or to catch sight of the dark film of a +mosquito-proof screen over doors and windows. + +And the Motor Convoy do all of the ambulance work of the whole big +district, which spreads considerably beyond even this great hospital +town. There are about one hundred and thirty members in the camp and +about eighty of the big Buick ambulances. Unlike the Fanny convoy I had +seen, there are at E---- always day and night shifts, a girl being on +night duty for one fortnight and on day duty for the next, except in +times of stress, when everyone works day and night too. + +We came in from our drive in the dark and I was shown to the room I was +to have for as much of the night as there would be, considering I was +going out on a convoy at one o'clock. It belonged to a V.A.D. at the +moment home on leave, but she had left a nice selection of bed-books +behind her, for which I was grateful, and there was a little electric +reading lamp perched on the shelf above the bed. It was a tiny place, +but it was all to myself. + +At supper in the mess-room, with Mr. Leps, the Great Dane, lying by the +stove and the cat curled between his outflung paws, we were waited on +by a very pretty V.A.D. with dark eyes and a deeply moulded face +compact of soft curves and pallor. Afterwards, the Commandant, a few of +the girls, and I went into her room, which was a trifle larger than the +ordinary run, and could be called a sitting-room at one end, for coffee +and cigarettes. There was a concert on, and I was asked whether I would +like to go to it, and, at the risk of seeming ungracious, I said if they +didn't mind I would rather not. They said that they would rather not, +too. I had seen the camp before dinner, had marvelled again how people +ever got used to living in match-boxes and having to cross a strip of +out-of-doors world to meals, and I was only wanting to sit still, +and--if the Fates were kind--listen. + +For all the time, as during the preceding days, I had felt the +depression growing over me, the terror of this communal life which took +all you had and left you--what? What corner of the soul is any refuge +when solitude cannot be yours in which to expand it? What vagrant +impulse can be cherished when liberty is not yours to indulge it? + +These girls, these strong, clear-eyed creatures whom I had seen, day +after day, who had at first impressed me only with their youth, their +school-girl gaiety, their--_horribile dictu_--their "brightness"--was it +possible that this life should really content them? I am not talking +now, remember, of Waacs, girls mostly of the working class, or of those +used to the sedentary occupation of clerkships, to whom this life is the +biggest freedom, the greatest adventure, they have known. I am talking +about girls of a class who, in the nature of things, lived their own +lives, before the war, did the usual social round, went hither and +thither with no man to say them nay--except a father, who doesn't count. +Young _femmes du monde_, there is no adequate English for it, +sophisticated human beings. + +For women, even the apparently merely out-of-door hunting games-playing +women, have arrived at a high state of sophistication; and this life +they now lead is a community life reduced to its essentials. And a +community life, though the building up of it marked the first stages of +civilisation, is, to the perfected product of civilisation, anathema. +Individuals had to combine to make the world, but now that it is made, +all the instincts of the most highly developed in it are towards +complete liberty as regards the amount of social intercourse in which he +or she wishes to indulge. We have fought through thousands of years for +a state of society so civilised that it is safe to withdraw from it and +be alone without one's enemy tracking one down and hitting one over the +head with an axe. + +This right, fought for through the ascending ages, these girls have +deliberately forgone, as every man in the Army has to forgo it also. +Were they aware of this? Or did they, after all, like it, unthinkingly, +without analysis? + +I had wondered as I saw my previous convoys and camps, and I had +wondered again as I saw over this convoy--saw the usual tiny cubicles, +with gay chintz curtains and photographs from home, and the shelf of +books, saw the great bare mess-rooms, the sitting-room, bright with +cushions, cosy with screens and long chairs, saw the admirable +bath-rooms, with big enamelled baths and an unlimited supply of hot +water, saw the two parks where the great ambulances were ranged, shadowy +and huge in the growing gloom and thick downpour of rain. Everywhere +smiling faces, uplifted voices, quick steps--yet I wondered. + +Was it possible this malaise of community life never weighed on their +souls? And, if possible--was it good that it should be so? + +I managed, stumblingly, to convey something of my thought, of the +depression which had been eating at me--not, as I tried to explain, that +I didn't admire them all, Heaven knew, rather that I must be, +personally, such a weak-kneed, backboneless creature to feel I couldn't, +for any cause on earth, have stood it. And I wanted--how I wanted--to +know how it was they did ... whether they really and actually could like +it...? "Of course, I know," I ended apologetically, "some people like a +community life----" + +"They must be in love with it to like community life carried to this +extent, then," said one swiftly, and a small, fair creature, with a +ribbon bound round her hair, agreed with her. She interested me, that +fair girl, because she was one of those people who feel round for the +right word until they have found it, however long it takes; impervious +to cries of "Go on, get it off your chest," she still sat quietly and +wrestled until the word came which exactly expressed the fine edge of +her meaning. She knew so well what she wanted to say that she didn't +want to say it any differently. + +They all talked, each throwing in a sentence to the discussion now and +again, but not one of them grumbled. Yet they all showed plainly that it +was not a blind enjoyment--or, indeed, much enjoyment at all--that they +found in the life. They were reasoning, critical, analytic, and +extraordinarily dispassionate. + +I can't put that conversation down for two reasons, the first being that +one doesn't print the talk of one's hostesses, and the second that it +would be too difficult to catch all those little half-uttered sentences, +those little alleys of argument that led to understanding, but led +elliptically, as is the way of either sex when it is unencumbered by the +necessity of dotting its i's for the comprehension of the other. But out +of that hour emerged, shining, several things which we in England ought +to realise better, and which lifted for me that cloud of depression +which had lowered over me all the days in France. + +These are not bouncing school-girls, "good fellows" having the time of +their lives, as vaguely those in England consider them, they are, thank +goodness, finely-evolved human beings who no more enjoy "brightness" +than you or I would. And it was the terrible feeling that everyone was +so "bright" which had oppressed me more than anything else. The joy of +finding that it wasn't so, that what I had feared I should be forced to +take as the unreflecting school-girl humour of overgrown school-girls +was only a protective aspect, that behind it the eyes of not only sane +but subtle young women looked out with amusement and patience upon a +world determined to see in them, first and last, "brightness"! + +Perhaps five per cent.--such was the estimate flung out into the +talk--of the girls really do enjoy it, the ghastly, prolonged, +cold-blooded picnic of it, perhaps five per cent. really are having the +"time of their lives," but the rest of them have moments when it hardly +seems possible to stick it. Yet they stick it, and stick it in good +comradeship, which is the greatest test of the lot. Their salvation lies +in the separate rooms--small, cold, but a retreat from the octopus of +community life.... + +[Illustration: WAACS IN THE BAKERY] + +[Illustration: WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES] + +[Illustration: WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SANDBAGS] + +That concert which I had felt so apologetic not to attend--what a relief +it had been to them that I didn't want to, didn't want to get "local +colour" and write of them as being so jolly, so gay! For this again is +typical--there are perhaps five girls out of every hundred who enjoy +being amused, to whom it is all part of the life which they actually +love, but from the greater part goes up the cry, "Work us as hard as you +like, but for Heaven's sake don't try and amuse us!" + +For, of course, it takes differing temperaments differently. To some +community life is little short of a nightmare, but to all there come +moments when it is exceedingly maddening. In those moments your own room +or a big hot bath are wonderful ways of salvation. + +As we talked, from A. came the theory that she was only afraid it would +prevent her ever loving motors again; and she had always adored motors +as the chief pleasure of life, before they became the chief business. B. +could not agree to that. C., who did agree, pointed out that it was on +the same principle as never wanting to go back to a place, no matter how +beautiful it was, if you had been very unhappy there. Even after your +unhappiness was dead and buried it would always spoil that place for +you.... B. said "Yes" to that, but argued that it would not spoil the +beauty of other places for you, which would be the equivalent of this +life spoiling all motors for A., after the war. + +The flaws in the analogy were not pursued, for D. advanced an +interesting theory that the hardest part of it was that you were so +afraid of what you might be missing all the time somewhere else. She +argued that the difficulty with her had always been to make up her mind +to any one course of action, because it shut off all the others, and, +like so many of us, she wanted everything.... + +A. said that shilly-shalliers never got anywhere, but I maintained with +D. that it wasn't shilly-shallying, which is another sort of thing +altogether, it was the passionate desire to get the most out of life, to +discover what was most worth while. "I want to spend ten years in the +heart of China more than to do any one thing," I pointed out, "but I +sha'n't do it because when I came out I shouldn't be young any more. +Therefore the ten years in China will have to go to a man, because it +doesn't matter so much to a man." This life in the B.E.F. was D.'s ten +years in China, not because--heaven forbid--it is going to last ten +actual years, or even that, as far as I could see, it was ageing her at +all, but simply because while she was doing it she couldn't be doing +anything else. She had had to burn her boats. + +Now that, to a certain temperament, means a great deal, and it is one of +the things, if not the chief thing, that marks service in France off +from equally hard work at home, and makes it, for reasons outside the +work, so much harder. + +All natures are not the same as D.'s, of course. To one girl a certain +thing is the hardship, to another a different thing. But the point is +that the hardship is there, not physical, but mental, and to me it was +the most exquisite discovery I could have made in the whole of France. +For the finer the instrument, the more fine it is of it to perform the +work, and the more finely will that work, in the long run, be done. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NIGHT + + +Not being among the lucky creatures who can fall happily to sleep when +they know they are to be called at one o'clock, I lay in my tiny bed and +revelled in that wonderful story of "The Bridge Builders" out of "The +Day's Work," till the sound of the storm without became the voice of +Mother Gunga. Then I turned out the light and lay and listened to the +truly fiendish train whistles which no reading could have transmuted, +and wondered why it is that French engine drivers apparently pay no +attention to signals, but just go on whistling till they are answered, +like someone who goes on ringing a bell till at length the door is +opened. The rain was turning to snow, so there was less of that steady +tinkling from without with which running water fills the world. I lay +and listened; and the whistles and the bellying of the chintz curtain +and the occasional swish of a heavy gust against the side of the hut +were at last beginning to blend in one blur in my mind when a girl came +softly into my room and whispered that it was time to dress. + +That utter quietness of the girls was a thing that had impressed me +after staying in hotels full of the British Army, which goes to bed at +midnight, bangs its doors, throws its boots outside, shouts from room to +room, and begins the whole process, reversed, at about six o'clock the +next morning. Here the girls wore soundless slippers, so that those who +had to be about should not disturb those who slept, and doors were +opened and shut with a cotton-wool care which appealed to me, or would +have, if I hadn't had to get up. + +When I was dressed I found my way down endless blowy corridors, for the +doors at the ends are always kept open, to the room of the girl who had +called me. She looked at my fur coat and said it would get spoilt. I +replied with great truth that it was past spoiling, but she took it off +me, whipped my cap from my head, and the girls proceeded to dress me. +They pulled a leather cap with ear-pieces down on my head and stuffed me +into woolly jackets and wound my neck up in a comforter and finished up +with a huge leather coat and a pair of fur gloves like bear's paws, so +that when all was done I couldn't bend and had to be hoisted quite stiff +up to the front of the ambulance. + +But first we all went into the kitchen, where part of the domestic staff +sits up all night to prepare food for the night drivers. There we drank +the loveliest cocoa I ever met, the sort the spoon would stand up in, +piping hot, out of huge bowls. Then my driver and the section leader for +the night led me across the soaking park to where, in almost total +darkness, girls were busy with their ambulances. I was hoisted up beside +my driver and endeavoured clumsily with my bear's paws to fasten the +canvas flap back across the side as I was bidden. I may say that I felt +extraordinarily clumsy amongst these girls, most of whom could have put +me in their pockets. They knew so exactly what to do, their movements +were all so perfectly adjusted to their needs, they knew where +everything was, while I fumbled for steps and hoped for the best.... +They made me feel, in the beautiful way they shepherded me, that I was a +silly useless female and that they were grave chivalrous young men; they +watched over me with just that matter-of-fact care. + +To me it was all wonderful, that experience. To the girls, who do it +every night, every alternate fortnight, year in, year out, the thrill of +it has naturally gone long since; the wonder is that to them all remains +the pity of it. We swung out of the park into the road. There was no +moon, the stars were mostly hidden by the heavy clouds, the sleet blew +in gusts against the wind screen. We went at a good pace, bound for a +Canadian hospital, and then for a station beyond E----, where the train +was waiting, for this was what is called an "evacuation" that I was +going to see. No train of wounded was due in that night, and the +Convoy's business was to take men who were being sent elsewhere from the +hospitals to the train. + +We stopped in front of a shadow hospital, set in a town of shadow-huts, +and a door opened to show an oblong of orange light, and send a paler +shaft widening out into the night towards the sleek side of our +ambulance. + +We heard the men being placed in the ambulance, the word was given, and +again we set off through the night, this time so slowly, so carefully, +for we carried that which must not be jarred one hair's breadth more +than could be helped. We crept along the roads, past the pines that +showed as patches of denser blackness against the sky, past the +sand-dunes that glimmered ghostly, past the blots of shadow made by +every shrub and tree-trunk, and behind and before us crawled other +ambulances, laden even as we. + +The station was wrapped in darkness, save for a hanging light here and +there, and an occasional uncurtained window in the waiting train. We +drew up under a light, where a sergeant was waiting. + +"Four from No. 7 Canadian," said my driver crisply. The sergeant +repeated, looked at a list he carried and marked our cases off it duly, +then told us the number of the compartment where we should stop. The +ambulance slid on, very slowly, beside the train and slowly came to +rest. + +I could see into the white-painted interior of the train, could see the +shelves running along its sides, and on the shelves, making oblong +shapes of darkness against all the white, men laid straightly ... in +front of us the Red Cross orderlies were sliding men down on stretchers +from the shelves of an ambulance, slipping them out, carrying them up +into the train and packing them on the shelves like fragile and precious +parcels. + +And suddenly it seemed to me there was something profoundly touching +about the sight of a man lying flat and helpless, shoved here and there, +in spite of all the care and kindness with which it was accomplished. It +is a thing wrong in essence, it seems an outrage on Nature--I got an odd +feeling that there was something wrong and unnatural about the mere +posture of lying-down that I never thought of before. The world seemed +suddenly to have become deformed, as a monster is deformed who is born +distorted. It shouldn't be possible to slide men on to shelves like +this.... + +The girl at the wheel pushed back the little shutter set in the front of +the ambulance and we looked into the dimly-lit interior. I could see the +crowns of four heads, the jut of brow beyond them, the upward peak of +the feet under the grey blankets, pale hands, one pair thin as a +child's, that lay limply along the edge of the stretchers. + +The orderlies came to the open door, one man mounted within, and the top +stretcher from one side was slipped along its grooves and disappeared, +tilted into the night. The boy on the top stretcher the other side +turned his head languidly and watched--I could see a pale cheek, +foreshortened from where I sat, a sweep of long dark eyelashes, the +curve of the drooping upper lip. His turn came, and, passive, he too was +slid out, then the two men below were carried away and up into the +train. The ambulance was empty. + +We turned in a circle over the muddy yard and started off again, +stopping again by the sergeant to get our orders. + +"Number 4," said the sergeant, and we swung, once more at a good pace, +along the heavy roads, took fresh turnings about and about in the city +of hospital huts, and drew up at Number 4. + +Again we were loaded, and again we crept back along the roads where we +had a few minutes before gone so swiftly, meeting empty cars, keeping in +line behind those laden like ourselves. Again we slowed down by the +waiting sergeant to say, "Two stretchers and two sitters from Four." He +echoed us, and we crept on to the appointed carriage and stopped. So it +went on through a couple of hours, ambulance after ambulance swiftly +leaving the station, slowly coming back, all drawing up gently by the +train, each, opened, making a faint square of light in the velvet +darkness. And then, at last, when it was all over, the return, swift +again, towards the camp. + +We bumped along the road, the dim pines falling away into the shadows +behind, a very mild funnel of light showing us a scrap of the way before +us and of hedge on either side, the twigs of it perpetually springing +out palely to die away once more. The wind was behind us and the screen +clear; far ahead of us on the road was an empty ambulance with its +curtains drawn back, bare but for its empty stretchers and dark +blankets, which made, in the pale glow of the white-painted interior, a +sinister Face--two hollow eyes and a wide mouth--that fled through the +night, always keeping the same distance ahead, grimacing at me, like an +image of the Death's Head of War.... I was glad when it swung round a +turning and was lost to us. + +We drove into the unrelieved darkness of the convoy park and drew up +with precision in our place, I wrestled again with the flap, and we got +out into the wet sleet, half-snow, half-rain. My driver covered up the +bonnet with tarpaulin, turned off the lights, and we went across to the +kitchen. It was half-past three, and we were the first to come back; we +asked for bowls of soup and stood sipping them and munching sandwiches +that lay ready cut in piles upon the table. + +Then, one after another, the drivers entered ... pulling off their great +gloves as they came, stamping the snow from their boots. They stood +about, drinking from their steaming bowls, bright-eyed, apparently +untired, throwing little quick scraps of talk to each other--about the +slowness of "St. John's" on this particular night, who hadn't their +cases ready and kept one or two ambulances "simply ages"; or the engine +trouble developed by one car which still kept it out somewhere on the +road. And I stood and listened and watched them, and I received an +impression of extraordinary beauty. + +These girls, with their leather caps coming down to their brows and over +their ears, looked like splendid young airmen, their clear, bold faces +coming out from between the leather flaps. They were not pretty, they +were touched with something finer, some quality of radiance only +increased by their utter unconsciousness of it. Each girl, with her +clear face, her round, close head, her stamping feet and strong, cold +hands, seemed so intensely alive within the dark globe of the night, +that her life was heightened to a point not earthly, as though she were +a visitant from the snows or fields I had not seen, fields Olympian.... +And as each came swinging in--"_vera incessu patuit dea_...." + +I could have wished them there for ever, like some sculptured frieze, so +lovely was the rightness and the inspiration of it. + +But I went to my bed, and one of the goddesses insisted on refilling my +hot-water bag, though I assured her it would be quite well as it was, +and I was unwound from my swaddling clothes and left to dream. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER" + + +Since the beginning of things women have been mixed up in war, and it is +only as the world has become more civilised (if in view of the present +one can make that assertion) that their place in it has been questioned. +The whole question of the civilian population has taken on a different +aspect since the outbreak of this war, owing to the extraordinary and +unprecedented penalties attached to the civilian status by Germany, but +the sub-division labelled "Women" has perhaps undergone more revision +than any. It has undergone so much revision, in fact, that women have, +in large masses, ceased to be civilians and are ranked as the Army. + +If it be frankly conceded that it is as natural for women to want to get +to the war as men, one clears the way for profitable discussion without +wasting time while the outworn epithets of "unwomanly" and +"sensation-hunters" are flung through the air to the great obscuring +thereof. The delight in danger for its own sake is common to all human +beings, to the young as an intoxicant, to the old as a drug. It is not +the least of the tragedies of woman that this is a delight in which she +is so seldom able to indulge. + +When the war broke, everyone wanted to go and see what it was like, and +it is merely useless to observe that this was treating it as a huge +picnic. Before the tightening-up process began, in the wonderful days +when the war was still fluid, it was possible to get out to the +front--the real front--on all sorts of excuses. The tightening-up was +necessary, and all too slow, but let us not, because of that, fall into +the error of calling the instinct which urged non-combatants "mere" +curiosity, as though that were not the greatest of the gifts of the +gods, without which nothing is done. + +Among these non-combatants who wanted to see the war were many women, +and if, mixed with their patriotism and desire to help, went a streak of +that love of danger which is no disgrace to a man--why, I maintain that +it is no disgrace to a woman either, but as natural an instinct as that +which drives one to a wayside orchard if one is hungry. + +There is nothing sooner slaked, for the time being, than this inherent +love of danger. Men who wanted the fun of it at the beginning of the war +are heartily sick of it now, though they wouldn't be out of it for +worlds. But most of the women haven't been allowed enough danger to get +sick of it, and so, in patches of young women you meet working in +France, the old craving still lifts its head. I came across a delightful +streak of it at T----, the oldest big convoy in France. + +The garage, over which the girls live, for their camp is still +a-building, is set in the eye of the cold winter winds on the top of a +hill overlooking the sea. It was snowing heavily as I drove up, great +fat flakes of snow that wove and interwove in the air in the way that +only snowflakes can, so that sometimes they look as though they were +falling upwards. The long line of the wooden garage showed dark in the +background, in the space before it the ambulances stood about, but the +girls were fox-trotting in couples all about them, their big rubber +boots shuffling up little clouds of snow; on the head of one girl was +swathed a greenish-blue handkerchief, which made a lovely note of colour +against the swirling whiteness. + +I was taken in through the garage, where two drivers were painting their +cars--for all painting is done by the girls, sometimes with unexpected +effects, as on one car which I saw, where "Eve" from the _Tatler_ and +her little dog were depicted in front of the body--and up a flight of +wooden stairs with an out-of-doors landing on top, to the cubicles, +which opened off on either side of the open-ended passage for the whole +length of the building. Here, in one of the little bedrooms for two, we +had a meal of cocoa and cake, known as the "elevener," for the obvious +reason that it is consumed at eleven every morning. It was all quite +different from my evening at the convoy at E----, but equally +stimulating. + +The great plaint of the girls was that they weren't allowed nearer the +fighting line, and I heard a story of how, in the early days, two cars +had managed to get right through to Poperinghe, when that town was the +centre of the Boche's attentions, by the simple expedient of the +girl-drivers turning up their coat collars, pulling their peaked caps +well down over their eyes, and just going ahead. They had a lovely time +in Poperinghe and lunched under shell-fire, and when the military, +including the Staff, were sitting in cellars, the "Chaufferettes" +sallied forth and bought picture post-cards. + +"It's a shame they won't let us go up to the line now----" + +"Yes, indeed," put in another very seriously, as though she were adding +the last uncontrovertible proof to the perfidy of the authorities--"They +let the sisters get shelled, so why shouldn't they let us?" + +Isn't that a delightful spirit, and, I beg leave to insist, a perfectly +natural and proper one? Any decent human being would like to be +shelled--who hasn't been shelled too much. It is like being in love--a +thing that ought to happen at least once to everybody. + +One of my hostesses was a violinist and plays at all the concerts for +the wounded which take place thereabouts. I asked her whether she didn't +find the work ruination to her fingers for the violin, but all she said +carelessly was that they had been ruined for three years now, but it +didn't matter, as anyway she couldn't have practised even if she had the +time, since there were always some girls trying to sleep. + +And what do the local French people think of these young girls in their +midst, who work like men and are out in all weathers and drive the +soldiers wounded in the great common cause? They are quite charming to +them, and indeed, when they first came, the French met them at every +station with bouquets of flowers, so that the girls, pleased and +embarrassed, English fashion, had a triumphal progress. But there are +some of the French neighbours who think the life must be very hard on +the poor things, and when, a little while ago, the Convoy organised a +paper chase, the popular belief was that the hares were escaping from +the rigours of life.... When the panting hares asked wayfaring traps for +a lift, it was refused them, as, though the kindly drivers had every +sympathy with the projected escape, they were not going to assist them +to defy authority! + +The hardships which this Convoy had undergone I did not hear about from +them, but from their Commandant. She told me of three weeks at the +beginning of things, when there were no fires, no hot water, except a +little always simmering for pouring into the radiators of the cars when +there came a night call--for the snow was frozen on the ground all those +three weeks and the water in the jugs was ice. The girls didn't talk +about that because they were not interested in it, but neither would +they talk about one other thing, though for a very different reason--and +that was of the time when, after the great German gas attacks at +Nieuport, they had to drive the gassed men who came on the hospital +trains.... You can't get them now to describe what that was like, nor +would you have tried, warned by the sudden change of voice in which they +even mentioned it. + +There was one point in which this Convoy seemed to me to touch the +extreme of abnegation attained by the G.S.V.A.D.'s. I had seen much +earlier in my visit a G.S.V.A.D. Convoy, but have not mentioned it +because I saw it before I had really grasped essentials, and it appeared +to me then just a plain Convoy, and as the bare facts of it were not as +spectacular as those relating to the Fannies, I chose the latter to +write about. + +The G.S.V.A.D.'s, as I have said, rank as privates, and among them are +workers of every kind--scrubbers, cooks, dispensers, clerks, motor +drivers. This G.S.V.A.D. convoy which I had seen was made up of girls +who had exchanged from V.A.D. convoys, mostly from this very one at +T---- where I now was; and so they happened to be all friends and all +girls of gentle birth. But when I saw their quarters--in a couple of +tall French houses that had been converted to the purpose--I was very +upset by the terrible fact that the girls had to share bedrooms. In all +the camps I had seen since, both of Fannies and V.A.D.'s, each girl had +her own tiny room which she cherished as her own soul--which, indeed, is +what it amounts to. And the Waac officers, of course, have their own +private rooms, though the girls sleep in dormitories. This convoy at +T---- was the only voluntary one I had come across where the inestimable +privilege of solitude was missing, though that will be put right when +the new camp is built. + +And here I may mention that, deeply as I admire all the girls who are +working so splendidly in France, I think perhaps my meed of admiration +brims highest for those members of the G.S.V.A.D.'s who are gently born, +for this very reason of the sleeping accommodation. Let us be frank, and +admit that for the generality of working girls, such as the Waacs and a +large proportion of the G.S.V.A.D.'s, it is not nearly so great a +hardship to sleep in dormitories as it is for girls who have, as a +matter of course, always been accustomed to privacy. It is not so bad in +the case of members of a G.S. convoy such as that I have mentioned, +where the girls are all friends, but what of those ladies who live in +the big camps and sleep in long huts with other girls of every class, +all, doubtless, decent good girls, but, in the nature of things, often +girls with whom any ground of meeting must be limited to the barest +commonalities of life? Also sometimes those in authority--those who are +and always were professionals, not amateurs--have been known to use the +power given to them, by the inferior rating of these girls, to make them +rather miserable. + +Personally, I have long had a theory, which will doubtless bring down on +me howls of rage from those who will say I am decrying the most noble of +professions, that women are not meant to be nurses. It brings out all +that is worst in them. The love of routine for its own sake, that deadly +snare to which women and Government officials succumb so much more +easily than do men, is fostered in them. And so is the love of authority +for their own sakes, which is almost worse. It has taken nothing less +than this way to show what splendid creatures nurses are under their +starched aprons. In times of peace only amateur women should be nurses; +for it may be observed that the V.A.D. nurses, though they have had long +enough to do it in, have not developed the subtle disease of nursitis. +Evidently nursing is a thing, like love-making, which should never +become a profession. + +I was glad to have seen all the different convoys I had, because no two +had been to me alike, and to each I am indebted for a differing +expression of the same vision, which is the vision splendid of a duty +undertaken gladly and sustained with courage. From my first convoys--the +Fannies and the G.S.V.A.D.'s--I got the wonderful facts of it, at the +V.A.D. Convoy at E---- I caught that side of it which I was most glad of +all to encounter, and at the V.A.D. Convoy at T---- I found that +delightful spirit of sheer joy in danger which is too precious to be +allowed to die out of the world just because there happens to be, at +present, such a great deal too much danger let loose upon it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +REST + + +The snow danced in a fine white mist over the ploughed fields, and drove +perpetually against the northerly sides of the tall bare tree-trunks +that lined the way for miles, hardly finding a hold upon the smooth +flanks of the planes, but sinking into the rough-barked limes till they +looked dappled with their brown ridges and the white veining, and oddly +as though covered with the pelt of some strange animal. High in the web +of bare branches, the clumps of mistletoe showed as filigree nests for +some race of fairy birds. + +Gracious country this, for all the desolate whiteness; it lay in great +rolling slopes with drifts of purplish elms in the folds, and on the +levels winding steel-dark streams along whose banks the upward-springing +willows burned an ardent rust colour. And as the car rocked and bounded +along and the wind screen first starred in one place, then in another, +then fell out altogether, one got a better and better view of it all. + +What a wonderful people the French are for agriculture.... Hardly a man +did I see all the days I motored about and about, but I saw mile after +mile of cultivated land, the sombrely-clad women or boys guiding the +slow ploughs, the rough-coated horses pulling patiently--white horses +that looked pale against the bare earth, but a dark yellow when the snow +came to show up the tarnishing that the service of man brings upon +beasts. Several times I saw English soldiers ploughing, and rejoiced. + +We came into the town that was our bourn in the grey of the evening, +passed the grey glimmer of the river between its grey stone quays, +passed the grey miracle of the cathedral, and then, in the rapidly +deepening dusk, turned in through great wrought iron gates into a grey +courtyard. + +It may have been gathered that, much as I admire both their practical +perfection and their spiritual significance, I am no lover of camps, +which seem to me among all things man-created upon God's earth about the +most depressing. I had lived and moved and had my being in camps it +seemed to me for countless ages, the edges of my soul were frayed with +camps. From the moment of walking into the old house at R---- a +wonderful sense of rest that brooded over the place enveloped me. The +thing had an atmosphere, impossible to exaggerate, though very difficult +to convey, but I shall never forget the miracle that house was to me. + +It was a Hostel for the Relations of Wounded, and there are in France +at present some half-dozen of these houses, supported by the Joint War +Committee of the Red Cross and the Order of St. John, and staffed by +V.A.D.'s. At all of them the relations of badly wounded are lodged and +fed free of charge, while cars meet them and also convey them to and +from the hospital. This much I knew as plain facts, what I had not been +prepared for was the breath of exquisite pleasure that emanated from +this house. + +The house was originally a butter market, and the entrance room, set +about with little tables where the relations have their meals, has one +side entirely of glass; the lounge beyond, which is for the staff, is +glass-roofed, while that opening on the right hand of the dining-place, +the lounge for the relations, has long windows all down the side; so it +will be seen that light and air are abundant on the ground floor of the +Hostel in spite of the fact that it looks on to a courtyard. + +From the relations' lounge, with its slim vermilion pillars ringed about +with seats like those round tree-trunks, there goes up a curving +staircase of red tiles, with a carved baluster of oak greyish with age, +a griffon sitting upright upon the newel. Up this staircase I was taken +to my room, and there the completion of peace came upon me. + +One could see at a glance it would be quiet, beautifully quiet. Its +window gave on to the sloping grey flanks of pointed roofs and showed a +filigree spire pricking the pale bubble of the wintry sky, its walls +were panelled from floor to ceiling, its hangings were of white and +vermilion, its floor dark and polished, and on the wide stone hearth +burned a wood fire. And, to crown all, after tiny huts, it was so big a +room that the corners were filled with gracious shadow; and the +firelight flickered up and down on the panelling and glimmered in the +polished floor and set the shadows quivering. I lay back in a +vermilion-painted chair and felt steeped in the bath of restfulness that +the place was. + +The whole house was very perfectly "got-up," the maximum of effect +having been attained with the minimum of expense, though not of labour; +it all having been achieved under the direction of a former +superintendent with a genius for decoration, who is now V.A.D. Area +Commandant and still lives at the Hostel. The evening I arrived there, +she and the staff were busy stenciling a buff bedspread with blue +galleons in full sail, varied by gulls. Everything is exceedingly +simple, there is no fussy detail, nothing to catch dirt. The walls are +all panelled, and painted either ivory or dark brown; the furniture is +of wicker and plain wood, painted in gay colours--rich blues and +vermilion; the tablecloths are of red or blue checks. In the spacious +bedrooms are simple colour schemes--in one there are thick, straight +curtains of flaming orange, in another of a deep blue, in another of +red and white checked material. The floors are of polished wood or red +tiles strewn with rugs; vivid-coloured cushions lie in the easy chairs; +and set about in earthen jars are great branches of mimosa and lilac +from the South, boughs of pussy-willow, the tender velvety grey ovals +blossoming into fragile yellow dust; all along the sills are indoor +window-boxes filled with hyacinths of pink and white and a cold faint +blue. + +On the walls the only decoration is that of posters, and these create an +extraordinary effect as of a series of windows, opening upon different +climes and strange worlds, windows set in ivory walls. Here is an old +Norman castle, grey against a sky of luminous yellow, there a stream in +Brittany which you can almost hear brawling past the plane-trees with +their freckled trunks, while beyond it, through another window, you see +a pergola of roses whose deep red has turned wine-coloured under the +moonlight, and beyond that again, the white cliffs of England go down +into a peacock sea. And, in the Red Cross dining-room, a poilu, his +mouth open on a yell of encouragement, charges with uplifted hands, +looking over his shoulder at you with bright daring eyes, and you do not +need the inscription underneath of "_On les aura!_" to guess what spirit +urges him. + +This, then, is the setting for one of the most merciful of the works of +the Red Cross. That it is appreciated is shown by the fact that at +Christmas, at this house, with its staff of Superintendent, cook, +parlourmaid, housemaid and "tweeny," with one chauffeuse, there were +forty relations of wounded staying. The average number of people for +whom Army and Red Cross rations are drawn three times a week is +twenty-five, but for these rations as for fifteen are drawn, as the food +supply is too generously proportioned for a household consisting so +largely of women. But it will be seen that with a constantly fluctuating +population the task of housekeeping is no easy one, though it is tackled +by the voluntary staff with gaiety and courage. + +They have troubles of their own, too, the members of that staff, and in +the big kitchen, where among the dishes on the table a pink hyacinth +bloomed, the fair-haired cook I saw so busily working was back from a +leave in England that was to have been her marriage-leave, had not her +fiancé been killed the day before he was to join her. Now she is amongst +her pots and pans again and smiling still, as I can testify. The +"tweeny," who also describes herself as a boot-boy, is a young +war-widow. Things like these are almost beyond the admiration of mortals +less severely tested. + +The material difficulties are not the worst in a hostel of this kind, +which in its very nature presupposes grief. The relations, of course, +are of all kinds, after every pattern of humanity, and each makes his or +her emotional demand, if not in active appeal to sympathy, yet in the +strain that it entails on the sensitively organised to see others in +sorrow--and unless you are sensitive you are no good for work such as +this. This hostel is blessed in its Superintendent, an American V.A.D. +worker of a personality so _simpatica_--there is no adequate English for +what I mean--that you are aware of it at first meeting with her; and she +is a woman of the world, which is not always the case with women +workers, however excellent. + +Shortly before I came to the Hostel a very young wife arrived to see her +husband, who lay desperately ill in one of the hospitals. When he died +she became as a thing distraught and could not be left, and the +Superintendent even had to have her to sleep in her room with her all +the time she was there. Others, again, are aloof in their sorrow, though +it is none the less tragic for that. The first question on the lips of +the Staff when the chauffeuse comes back from taking the relatives to +the hospital is, "Was it good news?" + +It was good news for the couple who arrived on the same evening that I +did, the mother and father of a young officer who was very badly +injured. I saw them next morning in the lounge, sitting quietly on +either side of the centre-stove, a business man and his wife, as neat, +he in his serge suit, she in her satin blouse and carefully folded lace +and smooth grey hair, as if they had not been travelling for a day and a +night on end, racked by anxiety, though you could see the deep lines +that the strain had left. He looked at me with those patient eyes of the +elderly which hold the same unconscious pathos as those of animals, and +talked in a low quiet voice, and it seemed almost an impertinence of a +total stranger to assure these gentle, dignified people of her gladness +that their only son was safe, yet how glad one is that any one of these +brief contacts in passing should be of happiness! It is so impossible +not to weep with them that weep that it is a keen joy to be able to +rejoice with them that do rejoice. + +"It's so free here ..." he told me, "that's what the wife and I like so. +No rules and regulations, you can do just what you like as though you +were in your own home ... no feeling that as you don't pay you've got to +do what you're told." And there was expressed the spirit of the Hostel +as I discovered it. + +There are no rules, and it is always impressed upon the Superintendents +that the relations are not obliged to go there, that they do so because +they choose to, and must be treated as honoured guests. In the +dining-room there are little tables as at an hotel, so that the +different parties can keep to themselves if they prefer it; there are +no times for going out or coming in, no times for "lights out," no need +to have a meal in if the visitor mentions he is going out for it. The +relations who stay at these hostels are guests in every sense of the +word, and there is not one trace of red tape or the faintest feeling of +obligation about the whole thing. + +And that must have been what I had felt in the very air of the place +when I arrived, what stole with so precious a balm over me who had been +in camp after camp, institution after institution. This place, with its +quiet walls and its grey shutters wing-wide upon its grey walls, was not +only beautiful and rich with that richness only age can give, it was +instinct as well with freedom and with peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL QUESTION + + +I have left till the last what to some people will be the dullest and +what is certainly the least spectacular of all the work done by the +women in France, but what is to me perhaps the most wonderful and +admirable of all. I mean that of the Domestic Staffs. + +For there is something thrilling about driving wounded, something +eternally picturesque about nursing them, but there is no glamour about +being a general servant.... A general servant, year in, year out, and +with no wages at that, for I talk of the voluntary staffs, girls of +gentle birth and breeding who deliberately undertake to wash dishes and +clean floors and empty slops day after day. I think heroism can no +higher go, and I am not trying to be funny; I mean it. + +All the voluntary camps I had seen, all the hostels, the rest stations, +and many hospitals, are staffed by voluntary domestic help; and the +girls they wait upon, the drivers and secretaries and such like, are +eager in recognition of them. But that seems to me about all the +recognition they do get; they get no "snappy pars," no photographs in +the picture papers, no songs are sung of them, no reward is theirs in +the shape of medal or ribbon, nothing but the sense of a dish properly +cleaned or rugs duly swept under. I consider that there ought to be a +special medal for girls who have slaved as general servants during the +war, without a thrill of romance to support them; a "Skivvy's Ribbon" as +one of them laughingly suggested to me when I propounded the idea. + +Take, for example, the Headquarters of the British Red Cross, at the +Hotel Christol at Boulogne, to which I returned on my homeward way, as I +had come to it on landing. The staff, counting the Commissioner and +officials, the clerks, typists, secretaries, and Post Office girls, +amount to about a hundred and forty-five people, and the house staff +number seventeen and are all V.A.D.'s. The Hotel Christol is also the +headquarters for all Red Cross people going on leave or arriving +therefrom via Boulogne, and all have to report there; nearly all want a +meal, many want a bed. + +The men-workers and many of the women, such as V.A.D. Commandants, etc., +live out in billets in the town, but the manageress and her assistant, +the Post Office Commandant, the girl driver of the mail-car with her +orderly (these two girls drive about sixty miles daily with the mails), +the girls of the telephone exchange and the rest of the Post Office +girls, all "live in," and in addition to the casual Red Cross workers +who may appeal for a bed any time there are the relations of wounded who +have been put up there whenever possible, though now a hostel is being +opened in Boulogne for the purpose. All the people working in the house +and all Red Cross workers arriving by boat are entitled to take their +meals at the Christol, as are all Red Cross workers in Boulogne, both +officers and privates, and the average number of meals served is 2,500 a +week. Four or five girls act as waitresses in the dining-room, and three +are always in the pantry, which must never be left for a moment during +the day; so it will be seen that the headquarters of the Red Cross is a +sort of hotel, except that nobody pays. + +There are French servants to do the roughest work, but the girls have +plenty to do without that. The house staff begin work at seven in the +morning; at seven-thirty in the evening they start to turn out the +forty-two offices, which they sweep and dust every day. They wash all +the tea-things (not the dinner-things), and clean all the silver and +glass, they make the beds and do all the waiting. A pretty good list of +occupations, is it not, carried out on such a huge scale? + +The girls are well looked after, for it must not be forgotten that some +of them are not more than eighteen, and their parents in England have a +right to demand that these children should be at once guarded and +cheered. No Red Cross girl is allowed out after half-past nine in a +restaurant, and none is ever allowed to dine out unaccompanied by +another girl. But when a friend of a girl passes through Boulogne, then +it is permitted that she and another girl may go and dine with the +officer in question, always provided they are back by nine-thirty. For +superiors are merciful and human creatures these days, and there is +always the thought that the girl may never see that friend again. And +Heaven--and the superior--knows that these girls need and deserve a +little relaxation and enjoyment. + +And would you not think that to girls who work as these do and behave so +well would at least be given the understanding and respect of all of us +who do so much less? Yet how often one hears careless remarks of censure +or--worse--of belittlement. That to other nations our ways may need +explaining is understandable, but we should indeed be ashamed that any +amongst ourselves fail in comprehension. + +What do the French think of our women? That is a question that +inevitably arises in the mind of anyone who knows the differences in +French and English education. Let me show the thing as I think it is, by +means of a metaphor. + +It is universally conceded that marriage is a more difficult proposition +than friendship, that it is more a test of affection to live under one +roof and share the daily commonplaces of life than it is to meet +occasionally when one can make a feast of the meeting. Yet this is not +to say that marriage is the less admirable state, but only to allow that +it is one requiring greater sacrifices, greater tact, and--greater +affection. Therefore, when it is admitted that the presence in France +for nearly four years of English soldiers, English civilians on +war-work, and the consequent erection of whole temporary townships for +their accommodation, is a greater test--if you will a greater +strain--for the Entente than if intercourse had been limited to an +occasional interchange of a handful of people, one is not saying +anything derogatory either to French hosts or English guests, but merely +frankly conceding that more depth of affection and understanding is +necessary than would otherwise have been the case. To superficial +relationships, superficial knowledge, but to the big partnerships of +life, complete understanding. And, if that is never quite possible in +this world, at least let the corner where knowledge cannot come be +filled by tolerance. + +England is no longer on terms of mere friendly intercourse with France; +the bond is deeper, more indissoluble.... And as in marriage the closest +bond of all is the birth of children, so in this pact of nations the +greatest bond is the loss of children--lost for the same cause upon the +same soil.... + +With a bond as deep as this--a bond always acknowledged and given its +meed of recognition by the most thoughtful brains and sensitive +hearts--yet, as in marriage, there are bound to be minor irritations, +points, not of meeting, but of conflict. Trifles, indeed, these points, +compared with the magnitude of the bond which unites, but nevertheless +trifles which would be better adjusted than ignored. + +In the first place, we must recognise that though the things which unite +us, our common ideals, our common needs, are far stronger than any +difference in our modes of thought, yet those differences exist, and +that, in marriage, it is often said that it is the little things which +count.... Heaven forbid that we should so lose sense of proportion as to +say it when the matter in hand is the marriage of nations, but +nevertheless it is well not entirely to forget it.... And, of all the +differences in customs between us, there is probably none more marked +than in our way of treating what is known--loosely and with considerable +banality--as the "sex-problem." This is not the place to discuss those +differences, though, as one who has known and loved France all her life, +I may mention that, personally, I see much to admire in the French +system and could wish that we emulated it, but that is neither here nor +there at the moment. + +France has probably evolved for the happiness and welfare of her +womenkind the sort of life which suits best with their temperament and +circumstances. Women, like water, find their own level, and no one who +knows France, and knows the devotion, the business capacity, and the +good works of her women, imagines them to be the butterfly creatures +that English fancy used to paint them twenty or thirty years ago. As a +matter of fact, the present writer had occasion, two winters ago, to +make a close study of the varied scope of women's work in France--the +hospitals for training of _femmes du monde_, the schools like Le Foyer, +for the training of young girls of the upper classes to help their +poorer sisters, etc., etc., all works carried on unostentatiously long +before the war broke upon us and proved their usefulness. The +"butterfly" Frenchwoman underwent, before the war, a far more serious +social training than did the happy-go-lucky English girl, and was better +equipped in consequence, with a knowledge of economic conditions, than +the untrained Englishwoman could be. + +But we too have our quality, and I rather think it is to be found in the +greater freedom which we are allowed. We were not so well trained, but +freedom stepped into the place of custom, and gave the necessary +attitude of mind--that unprejudiced, untrammelled attitude which is +essential to the quick grasping of a fresh _métier_. That is where our +method--or, if you prefer it, our lack of method--helped us, even as +their training helped the French. And the French, with their +extraordinary facility of vision, do, I think, understand that we have +simply pushed our freedom to its logical and legitimate outcome, that we +could not be expected, after being accustomed, for many years past, to +be on terms of simple easy friendship with men as with our own sex, +above all, after working side by side with them since this war began, we +could not be expected to say that we could not work with them in France, +though we could in England, or that perhaps this girl would, and that +girl couldn't.... + +We naturally proceeded to act _en masse_ as we had acted individually, +to do on a large scale what had been done on a small, to manipulate +great bodies of women where before a few friends had worked together. In +every large body of persons there are bound to be one or two individuals +who fail to come up to the required standard, but that does not alter +the principle that what can safely be done in small quantities can +safely be done in large, provided the conditions are altered to scale. + +And that is what we are doing, and what our Government is helping us to +do; that is what our Women's Army and our voluntary workers in France +are--the expression, on a large scale, of what bands of women have been +doing so successfully on a small scale since the beginning of the +war--helping, and even replacing the men. And just as, with our +peculiar training and mode of thought, it is possible for the average +Englishwoman to eliminate sex as a factor in the scheme of things, so it +is possible to eliminate it in greater masses. In other words, it is +perfectly possible, to men and girls brought up with the English method +of free friendly intercourse, to work side by side, to meet, to walk +together, and to remain--merely friends. Whether that is a good thing or +not is another point altogether, as it is whether it makes for charm in +a woman.... Certainly no woman in this world competes with a Frenchwoman +for charm. It is as recognised as an Englishwoman's complexion--and +considerably more lasting! + +Probably it is only ourselves and the Americans among the races of the +world who could have instituted such an experiment as that of our +Women's Army, but there is among the nations one which is supreme in +"flair," in sympathy, and a certain ability to comprehend intellectually +what it might not understand emotionally, and that nation is France. + +I am confident that it will never have to be said that when Englishwomen +sacrificed so much--and to a Frenchwoman one does not need to point out +what a sacrifice it is when a woman risks youth and looks in hard +unceasing work--that Frenchwomen failed to understand them or to +attribute motives to them other than those that have animated +themselves in their own labours throughout the war. + +That it must sometimes look odd to them one knows so well; how can it be +otherwise? They see the girls, khaki-clad, out walking without +"Tommies," hear the sounds of music and dancing coming from the +recreation huts, where the girls are allowed to invite the men, and +_vice versa_. Yet, if you investigate, you will find out that they are +of an extraordinary simplicity, these girls and men, in their +intercourse, in their earnest dancing, taught them by instructors from +our Young Men's Christian Association, inspired by nothing more heady +than lemonade, and chaperoned by the women-officers, who have attained a +mixture of authority and motherly supervision over every individual girl +that reminds me of nothing so much as the care, born of a sort of divine +cunning, of a very dear and clever Mother Superior at a convent I once +stayed at in France. For the interesting point for both the French and +ourselves to note is that in the treatment of our Women's Army in France +we have taken a leaf out of their book. We look after the girls with +something of that love and care which surrounds a girl in France. + +For many of the Women's Army are working girls, who have never been +guarded in their lives, whose parents had probably, after the +lower-class English way, very little influence with them, and who, +though good, honest, rough girls, were free to roam the streets of their +native towns with their friends every evening once their work was over. +Now, for what is for many of them the first time in their lives, they +are being watched and guarded in a manner that is more French than +English, and which I find admirable. As for their walks, their +friendships with men, the personal observation of the acute French will +show them that it is merely our Anglo-Saxon way, and the official +statistics will prove to any doubters how well both the girls and the +men can be trusted to behave themselves. We are a cold nation if you +like, but there it is--it has its excellences, if not its charms. + +So much for fundamental differences, which, when intelligence and +sympathy go out to meet them, become merely points on which temperaments +agree to differ amicably, each giving its meed of admiration to the +other. And for minor matters, little things of different customs only, +that nevertheless, occasionally, in the strain of this war, ruffle even +friends, I would say something like this, which is in the hearts of us +all.... + +France--dear lovely France, to so many of us adored for many years, who +has stood to us for the romance of the world, we know that in many +things our ways are not your ways and never will be, nor would we wish +it otherwise. To each nation her distinctiveness, or she loses her +soul. But, when those ways of ours seem to you most alien, say to +yourself: "This is only England's differing way of doing what we are +doing, of fighting for what we are fighting for--the saving of the right +to individualism, the right to be different...." To gain that we are all +having to become alike, just as to win freedom we are having for a time +to give it up, and the great thing to remember is that this terrible +coherent community life is being borne with only that eventually we may +all be free men once more. Let us, for all time, differ in our own ways, +rather than agree in the German! But also let us, while differing, +understand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NOTES AND QUERIES + + +On my last evening I sat and thought about the girls I had seen and +known, in greater and less degrees, in passing. And I saw them, not as +unthinking "sporting" young things, who were having a great adventure, +but as girls who were steadily sticking to their jobs, often without +enjoyment save that of knowledge of good work well done. And I thought +of those prophets who gloomily foretell that the women will never want +to drop into the background again--forgetful of the fact that where a +woman is is never a background to herself. I smiled as I thought of the +eagerness with which these hard workers in mud and snow and heat will +start buying pretty clothes again and going out to parties ... and I was +very thankful to know how unchangedly woman they had all remained, in +spite of the fact that they had had the strength to lay the privileges +and the fun of being a woman aside for a time. + +I remembered what the D. of T. had said to me when we discussed the +question of how the girls would settle down when it was all over, and +how he had thought that even if they did not marry all would be well, +because they would have had their adventure.... I remembered too how +that had seemed to me the correct answer at the time. Then later, when +that awful web of depression caught me, and the horror of the +school-girl conditions of life and all the apparent "brightness" had +choked me, I had all the more thought it true, but marvelled; later +still, when I caught glimpses of that wonderful spirit and that deep +sophistication which had so cheered me, I reversed the whole judgment +and thought there was nothing in it. + +Now, thinking it all over, it seemed to me that somewhere midway lay +Truth. These girls have had, in a certain sense, their adventure, but +when it is all over, they will have a reaction from it, and I believe +that reaction will be pleasant to them, that it will be the reaction, +and not the memory of adventure, which will content them. It is certain +that to anyone who has worked as these girls work a considerable period +of doing nothing in particular will be very acceptable. They will all +have to become themselves again, which will be interesting.... + +Dear, wonderful girls ... you who wash dishes and scrub and sweep, you +girls of the Women's Army who replace men and who do it so thoroughly, +you drivers who are out in all weathers, night and day, sometimes for a +week or more on end, who face hardships such as were faced in those +three weeks at T---- when there were no fires and no water, how glad I +am to have met you.... So I sat and thought, and then I picked up a copy +of _The Times_ which had just come over. And in the "Personal" column +this caught my eye: + +"Lady wants war-work, preferably motor-driving, from three to five p.m." + +And I saw that it was not only those far removed from the war who +misunderstood both what it demands and that which has arisen to meet +those demands. + +Do we not nearly all fail to realise the magnitude and import of what is +being done by these unspectacular workers behind the lines, who are yet +part of war itself, and daily and nightly strengthen the hands of the +fighters? Some of us in England realise as little as you in far-off +countries, and yet it should be our business to know, because the least +we can do is to understand so that we, in our much less fine way, can +help them a little, one tithe of the amount they help our fighting men. + +Not because of any desire of theirs for praise is it necessary--I never +saw a healthier disregard, amounting to a kindly contempt, for what +those at home think or don't think, than among the women working in +France--but because it is only by knowing that we can respond +generously enough to the needs of their work, and only by understanding +that we can save our own souls from that fat and contented ignorance +which induces a sleep uncommonly like death. + +Nor, as long as we listen to the girls themselves, are we in any danger +of thinking too much of them or of their work. Not a woman I met, +English or American, working in France, but said something like this, +and meant it: "What, after all, is anything we can do, except inasmuch +as it may help the men a little? How could we bear to do nothing when +the men are doing the most wonderful thing that has ever been done in +the world?" + + + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Note: + +Punctuation has been normalised. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sword of Deborah, by F. 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Tennyson Jesse. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.toc { + margin: auto; + width: 60%; +} + +td.c1 { + text-align: right; + vertical-align: top; + padding-right: 1em; +} + +td.c2 { + text-align: left; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-right: 1em; + vertical-align: top; +} + +td.c3 { + text-align: right; + padding-left: 1em; + vertical-align: bottom; +} + + + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + .signature { + text-align: right; + margin-right: 40%; +} + + .signature2 { + text-align: right; + margin-right: 25%; +} +/* Poetry */ + .poem { + margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 37%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; + } + .poem .stanza { +margin: 1em 0em; + } + .poem p { +padding-left: 3em; margin: 0px; text-indent: -3em; + } + +ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} +.tnote { + border: dashed 1px; + margin-left: 30%; + margin-right: 30%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sword of Deborah, by F. Tennyson Jesse + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sword of Deborah + First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France + +Author: F. Tennyson Jesse + +Release Date: October 25, 2010 [EBook #33906] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SWORD OF DEBORAH *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Neufeld, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h1>THE SWORD OF DEBORAH</h1> + +<h2>F. TENNYSON JESSE</h2> + + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Women are timid, cower and shrink</p> +<p>At show of danger, some folk think;</p> +<p>But men there are who for their lives</p> +<p>Dare not so far asperse their wives.</p> +<p>We let that pass—so much is clear,</p> +<p>Though little dangers they may fear,</p> +<p>When greater dangers men environ,</p> +<p>Then women show a front of iron;</p> +<p>And, gentle in their manner, they</p> +<p>Do bold things in a quiet way."</p> + +</div></div> + + + +<div class="signature"><span class="smcap">Thomas Dunn English.</span></div><p> </p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_Frontispiece" id="Page_Frontispiece">[Frontispiece]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;"> +<img src="images/gs01.png" width="356" height="500" alt=" AERIAL TORPEDO DROPPED INTO +CAMP" title="" /> +<span class="caption">A "FANY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO DROPPED INTO +THE CAMP</span> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h1>THE SWORD<br /> +OF DEBORAH</h1> + +<p> </p> + +<p> </p> + +<h3><i>FIRST-HAND IMPRESSIONS OF THE<br /> +BRITISH WOMEN'S ARMY IN FRANCE</i></h3> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>F. TENNYSON JESSE</h2><p> </p> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF "SECRET BREAD," "THE MILKY WAY," ETC.</h5> + +<p> </p> +<h2>NEW YORK</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"><p> </p> +<img src="images/tpa.png" width="50" height="50" alt="GDH Logo" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> + +<h2>GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</h2><p> </p> + + +<hr /> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<h4><i>Copyright, 1919,<br /> +By George H. Doran Company</i></h4> + +<p> </p> + +<h4><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></h4><p> </p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>This little book was written at the request of +the Ministry of Information in March of 1918; +it was only released for publication—in spite of +the need for haste in its compiling which had been +impressed on me, and with which I had complied—shortly +before Christmas. Hence it may seem +somewhat after the fair. But it appears to me +that people should still be told about the workers +of the war and what they did, even now when we +are all struggling back into our chiffons—perhaps +more now than ever. For we should not forget, +and how should we remember if we have never +known?</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table class="toc" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="c1 smcap"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td class="c3"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">I</td><td class="c2">A.B.C.</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">II</td><td class="c2 smcap">The Fever Chart of War</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">III</td><td class="c2 smcap">Backgrounds</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">IV</td><td class="c2 smcap">My First Convoy</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">V</td><td class="c2 smcap">Outposts</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">VI</td><td class="c2 smcap">WAACS: Rumours and Realities</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">VII</td><td class="c2 smcap">The Brown Graves</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">VIII</td><td class="c2 smcap">Vignettes</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">IX</td><td class="c2 smcap">Evening</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">X</td><td class="c2 smcap">Night</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">XI</td><td class="c2 smcap">"And the Bright Eyes of Danger"</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">XII</td><td class="c2 smcap">Rest</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">XIII</td><td class="c2 smcap">General Servants and a General Question</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1">XIV</td><td class="c2 smcap">Notes and Queries</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr></table> + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + +<table class="toc" summary="Illustrations"> + +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> A "Fany" with the Aerial Torpedo Dropped into the Camp</td><td class="c2"><a href="#Page_Frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> H. M. The Queen Inspecting a Vad Domestic</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> A Vad Motor Convoy</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> Waac Gardeners at Work in the Cemetery</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> Wreaths from Mothers of the Fallen</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> Waacs in the Bakery</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> Waac Cooks Preparing Vegetables</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="c1"> </td><td class="c2 smcap"> Waac Encampment Protected by Sandbags</td><td class="c3"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr /> +<h2>THE SWORD OF DEBORAH</h2> + +<h3>"<i>Thou art an Amazon, and fightest with +the sword of Deborah.</i>"</h3> + +<div class="signature2"><span class="smcap">—1 Henry VI.</span> 1. ii.</div> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE<br /> +SWORD OF DEBORAH</h2> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>A.B.C.</h3> + + +<p>This world of initials ... in which the members +of the British Expeditionary Force live and +move—it is a bewildering place for the outsider. +Particularly to one who, like the writer, has never +been able to think in initials, any more than in +dates or figures. The members of the B.E.F.—and +that at least is a set of letters that conveys +something to all of us—not only live amidst +initials, but are themselves embodied initials. To +them the string of letters they reel off is no meaningless +form, no mere abracadabra to impress the +supplicant, but each is a living thing, coloured, definitely +patterned, standing for something in flesh +and blood, or stone and mortar; something concrete +and present to the mind's eye at the mere mention.</p> + +<p>Just as, to anyone who does not know New +York, it seems as though all the streets must sound +exactly alike, being merely numbered, while, to +anyone who knows them, the words East Sixty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +First, say, are as distinct from East Twenty First, +distinct with a whole vivid personality of their +own, as Half Moon Street from Threadneedle +Street—so, to the initiate in the game, the letters +so lightly rattled off to designate this or that +official or institution stand for vivid, real, colourable +things.</p> + +<p>But at first one is reminded forcibly of that +scene in "Anna Karenina" where Levin proposes +to Kitty for the second time by means of writing +in chalk on a table the letters "W, y, t, m, i, c, n, +b, d, t, m, n, o, t," and Kitty, with great intelligence, +guesses that they mean "When you told me +it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" +Kitty, if you remember, replies in initials at almost +equal length, and Levin displays an intelligence +equal to hers. I had always found that scene +hard of credence, but I have come to the conclusion +that Levin and Kitty would have been +invaluable at H.Q.B.R.C.S., A.P.O. 3, B.E.F.</p> + +<p>And the fog of initials is symbolic in a double +manner; for not only do the initials stand for what +they represent to those who know, but in their +very lack of meaning for those who do not, they +typify with a peculiar aptness the fact that after +all we at home in England, particularly we ladies +of England who live at home in ease, know very +little indeed of even what the letters B.E.F. stand +for. We have hazy ideas on the subject. Vaguely +we know, for instance, that there are women, lots<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +of women, working out in France, though quite +at what, beyond nursing, we don't seem to know. +Motor drivers ... of course, yes, we have heard +of them. There is a vague impression that they +are having the time of their lives, probably being +quite useful too ... but of the technique of the +thing, so to speak, what do we know? About as +much as we know when we first hear the clouds of +initials rattling like shrapnel about our heads if +we go over to France.</p> + +<p>And if we at home know so little, how can +other countries know, who have no inner working +knowledge of English temperaments and training +to go upon as a rough guide to at least the probable +trend of things? How can we expect them +to know? And yet knowledge of what every section +of the working community is doing was never +so vital as at the present moment, because never +before has so much of the world been working +together on the same job—and the biggest job in +history.</p> + +<p>It is always a good thing to know what other +folk are doing, even when they are not your sort, +and what they are doing does not affect you, because +it teaches proportion and widens vision—how +much more important, then, when what they +are doing is what you are doing too, or what you +may yet come to do?</p> + +<p>Gentle reader—and even more especially ungentle +reader—if in these pages I occasionally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +ask you to listen to my own personal confession +both of faith and of unfaith—please realise that +it is not because I imagine there is any particular +interest in my way of seeing things, but simply +because it is only so that I can make you see them +too. You are looking through my window, that +is all, and it is not even a window that I opened +for myself, but that had to be opened for me. If +you will realise that I went and saw all I did see, +not as myself, but as you, it will give you the +idea I am wishful to convey to you. Anything +I feel is only valuable because my feeling of it +may mean your feeling of it too. Therefore, +when you read "I" in these pages, don't say +"Here's this person talking of herself again ..." +say "Here am I, myself. This person only saw +these things so that I should see them."</p> + +<p>If you don't it will be nine-tenths my fault and +one-tenth your own.</p> + +<p>Just as all the apparently endless combinations +of initials in France are symbols of living realities +to those who understand them, and of their ignorance +to those who don't just as the very heading +of "A.B.C." which I have given this chapter +typifies both those combinations of initials and the +fact that you and I are beginning at the very +beginning—for no one could have been more +blankly ignorant than I when I went over to +France—so the letter "I" whenever it occurs in +this book is a symbol for You.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE FEVER CHART OF WAR</h3> + + +<p>"The women are splendid...." How tired +we are of hearing that, so tired that we begin to +doubt it, and the least hostile emotion that it +evokes is the sense that after all the men are so +much more splendid, so far beyond praise, that +the less one says of anyone else the better. That +sentence is dead, let us hope, fallen into the same +limbo as "Business as Usual" and the rest of the +early war-gags, but the prejudices it aroused, the +feeling of boredom, have not all died with it. +Words have at least this in common with men, +that the evil that they do lives after them.</p> + +<p>Let me admit that when those in authority sent +for me to go to France and see what certain sections +of the women there were doing, I didn't +want to go. I told them rather ungraciously that +if they wanted the "sunny-haired-lassies-in-khaki-touch" +they had better send somebody else. I am +not, and never have been, a feminist or any other +sort of an 'ist, never having been able to divide +humanity into two different classes labelled "men" +and "women." Also, to tell the truth, the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +going so far behind the lines did not appeal. +For this there is the excuse that in England one +grows so sick of the people who talk of "going to +the Front" when they mean going to some safe +château as a base for a personally conducted tour, +or—Conscientious objectors are the worst sinners +in this latter class—when they are going to sit +at canteens or paint huts a hundred miles or so +behind the last line of trenches. The reaction +from this sort of thing is very apt to make one +say: "Oh, France? There's no more in being +in France behind the lines than in working in England." +A point of view in which I was utterly +and completely wrong. There is a great deal of +difference, not in any increased danger, but in +quite other ways, as I shall show in the place and +order in which it was gradually made apparent +to me.</p> + +<p>Also, no one who has not been at the war knows +the hideous boredom of it ... a boredom that +the soul dreads like a fatal miasma. And if I had +felt it in Belgium in those terrible grey first weeks +of her pain, when at least one was in the midst of +war, as it was then, still fluid and mobile, still full +of alarums and excursions, with all the suffering +and death immediately under one's eyes still a new +thing; if I had felt it again, even more strongly, +when I went right up to the very back of the +front in the French war zone for the Croix Rouge, +in those poor little hospitals where the stretchers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +are always ready in the wards to hustle the +wounded away, and where, in devastated land only +lately vacated by the Germans, I sat and ate with +peasants who were painfully and sadly beginning +to return to their ruined homes and cultivate again +a soil that might have been expected to redden the +ploughshare, how much the more then might I +dread it, caught in the web of Lines of Communication.... +I feared that boredom.</p> + +<p>And there was another reason, both for my disinclination +and my lack of interest. We in England +grew so tired, in the early days of the war, +of the fancy uniforms that burst out upon women. +Every other girl one met had an attack of khaki-itis, +was spotted as the pard with badges and +striped as the zebra. Almost simultaneously with +this eruption came, for the other section of the +feminine community, reaction from it. We others +became rather self-consciously proud of our femininity, +of being "fluffy"—in much the same way +that anti-suffragists used to be fluffy when they +said they preferred to influence a man's vote, and +that they thought more was done by charm....</p> + +<p>With official recognition of bodies such as the +V.A.D.'s and the even more epoch-making official +founding of the W.A.A.C.'s, the point of view +of the un-uniformed changed. The thing was no +longer a game at which women were making silly +asses of themselves and pretending to be men; it +had become regular, ordered, disciplined and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +worthy of respect. In short, uniform was no +longer fancy dress.</p> + +<p>But the feeling of boredom that had been engendered +stayed on, as these things do. It is yet +to be found, partly because there still are women +who have their photographs taken in a new uniform +every week, but more because of our ignorance +as to what the real workers are doing. And +like most ignorant people, I was happy in my +ignorance.</p> + +<p>Well, I went, and am most thankful for my +prejudice, my disinclination, my prevision of boredom. +For without all those, what would my conversion +be worth? Who, already convinced of +religion, is amazed at attaining salvation? It is +to the mocker that the miracle is a miracle, and +no mere expected sequence of nature, divine or +human.</p> + +<p>I was often depressed, the wherefore of which +you will see, but bored, never. Thrilled, ashamed +for oneself that one does so little—admiring, critical, +amused, depressed, elated, all this gamut +and its gradations were touched, but the string of +boredom, never. And the only thing that worries +anyone sent on such a quest as mine, and with +the inevitable message to deliver at the end of +it, is that terrible feeling that no matter how +really one feels enthusiasm, how genuine one's +conversion, there will always be the murmur of—"Oh, +yes.... Of course she has to say all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +... it's all part of the propaganda. She was +sent to do it and she has to do it, whether she +really believes in it or not...."</p> + +<p>What can one say? I can only tell you, O Superior +Person, that no matter what I had been +sent to do and told to write I not only wouldn't +but couldn't have, unless I meant it. I can only +tell you so, I can't make you believe it. But let +me also assure you that I too am—or shall I say +was?—Superior, that I too have laughed the +laugh of sophistication at enthusiasm, that I too +know enough to consider vehemence amusing and +strenuous effort ill-bred, that doubtless I shall do +so again. But there is one thing that seems to me +more ill-bred, and that is lack of appreciation of +those who are doing better than oneself.</p> + +<p>Lest you should misunderstand me when I say +that I didn't want to go to France this time, and +feared boredom, and felt no particular interest +in the work of the women over there, let me add +that I was careful to sponge my mind free of all +preconceived notions, either for or against, when +once it was settled that I should go. I went without +enthusiasm, it is true, but at least I went with +a mind rigorously swept and garnished, so that +there might enter into it visitants of either kind, +angelic or otherwise.</p> + +<p>For this has always seemed to me in common +honesty a necessary part of equipment to anyone +going on a special mission, charged with finding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +out things as they are—to be free not only of +prejudice against, but predisposition for; and just +as a juryman, when he is empanelled, should try +and sweep his mind bare of everything he has +heard about the case before, so should the Special +Missioner—to coin a most horrible phrase—make +his mind at once blank and sensitised, like +a photographic plate, for events to strike as truly +as they may, with as little help or hindrance from +former knowledge as possible.</p> + +<p>Human nature being what it is, it is probably +almost impossible for the original attitude to be +completely erased, however conscientious one is, +and that is why I am glad that my former attitude +was, if not inimical, at least very unenthusiastic, +so that I am clear of the charge of seeing +things as I or the authorities might have wished +me to see them.</p> + +<p>And, for the first few days, as always when +the mind is plunged headlong into a new world, +though I saw facts, listened to them, was impressed, +very impressed, by their outward show, +it still remained outward show, the soul that informed +the whole evaded me, and for many days +I saw things that I only understood later in view +of subsequent knowledge, when I could look back +and see more clearly with the mind's eye what I +before had seen with the physical. Yet even +the first evening I saw something which, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +only dimly, showed me a hint of the spirit of the +whole.</p> + +<p>I was at the Headquarters of the British Red +Cross—which is what the letters H.Q.B.R.C.S. +stand for—and I was being shown some very peculiar +and wonderful charts. They are secret +charts, the figures on which, if a man is shown +them, he must never disclose, and those figures, +when you read them, bring a contraction at once +of pity and of pride to the heart. For, on these +great charts, that are mapped out into squares +and look exactly like temperature charts at a hospital, +are drawn curves, like the curves that show +the fever of a patient. Up in jagged mountains, +down into merciful valleys, goes the line, and at +every point there is a number, and that number is +the number of the wounded who were brought +down from the trenches on such a day. Here, on +these charts, is a complete record, in curves, of the +rate of the war. Every peak is an offensive, every +valley a comparative lull.</p> + +<p>Sheet after sheet, all with those carefully-drawn +numbered curves zigzagging across them, all showing +the very temperature of War....</p> + +<p>With this difference—that on these sheets there +is no "normal." War is abnormal, and there is +not a point of these charts where, when the line +touches it, you can say—"It is well."</p> + +<p>As I looked at these records I began to get a +different vision of that tract of country called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +"Lines of Communication" which I had come to +see. This, where War's very pulse was noted day +by day, was the stronghold of War himself. Here +he is nursed, rested, fed with food for the mouths +of flesh and blood, and food for the mouths of +iron; here, the whole time, night and day, as +ceaselessly as in the trenches, the work goes on, +the work of strengthening his hands, and so every +man and woman working for that end in "L. of +C." is fighting on our side most surely. Something +of the hugeness and the importance of it began +to show itself.</p> + +<p>And, as regards that particular portion which I +had come out to see, I began to get a glimmering +of that also, when it was told me, that of those +thousands of wounded I saw marked on the charts, +a great proportion was convoyed entirely by +women. There are whole districts, such as the +Calais district, which includes many towns and +stations, where every ambulance running is driven +by a woman. Not only the fever rate of War is +shown on those charts, but just as to the seeing +eye, behind any temperature-chart in a hospital, +is the whole construction of the great scheme—doctors, +surgeons, nurses, food, drugs, money, devotion, +everything that finds its expression in that +simple sheet of paper filled in daily as a matter of +routine, so behind these charts of War's temperature +kept at H.Q. is the whole of the complex organisation +known as the British Red Cross. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +outstanding even amongst so much that is splendid +are certain bands of girls behind the lines, who, +not for a month or two, but year in, year out, during +nights and days when they have known no +rest, have they, also, had their fingers on the +pulse of war.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>BACKGROUNDS</h3> + + +<p>At H.Q.B.R.C.S. the D. of T. told me the +first things for me to see were the F.A.N.Y.'s +and the G.S.V.A.D.'s. That is the sort of sentence +that was shot at me on my first day. I have +told you what H.Q.B.R.C.S. means; the D. of T. +means Director of Transport; the F.A.N.Y. is the +First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, and the G.S.V.A.D. +is the General Service Voluntary Aid Detachment. +Now the V.A.D. I had heard of, and of its members, +always called V.A.D.'s, but G.S.V.A.D. was +something new to me. Yet the importance of +the distinction, I soon learned, was great.</p> + +<p>Four sets of initials represented my chief objectives +in France, the F.A.N.Y.'s, the V.A.D.'s, +the G.S.V.A.D.'s, and the W.A.A.C.'s. Of these +the former are known as the Fannies, and the last +named as the Waacs, owing to the tendency of +the eye to make out of any possible combination +of letters a word that appeals to the ear. Of these +four bodies, the Fannies and the V.A.D.'s were +in existence before the war, being amongst those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +who listened to the voice of Lord Roberts crying +in the wilderness. They are all unpaid, voluntary +workers, and they rank officially as officers. +Among themselves, of course, they have their +own officers, but socially, so to speak, every Fanny +and V.A.D. is ranked with the officers of the +Army. But with the G.S.V.A.D.'s and the Waacs +it is not so. They are paid, and are to replace +men; G.S.V.A.D.'s work in motor convoys and at +the hospitals, as cooks, dispensers, clerks, etc., +and the Waacs work for the combatant service. +Except for their officers, who rank with officers +of the Army, the members of these two bodies are +considered as privates.</p> + +<p>And as both the Fannies and the Waacs go in +khaki, and both the V.A.D.'s and the G.S.V.A.D.'s +in dark blue, it will be seen that confusion is very +easy to the uninitiate. That is my only excuse +for perpetrating the worst blunder that has probably +ever been committed in France. Taken to +tea at a Fanny convoy I committed the unspeakable +sin of asking whether they were Waacs....</p> + +<p>They were very kind to me about it, but when I +eventually grasped the system, I saw it was as +though I had asked a Brass Hat whether he belonged +to the Salvation Army. Yet when I told +the sad tale of my <i>gaffe</i> to the members of +a V.A.D. convoy, they only seemed to think it +must have been quite good for the Fannies ... +but somehow it wasn't equally good for them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +when I timidly asked whether they were +G.S.V.A.D.'s ... though they were also very +kind to me about it.</p> + +<p>The D. of T. motored me over to the Fannies' +convoy, on a pale day of difficult sunlight. Is +there anywhere in the world, I wondered, more +depressing—more morbid—landscape, than that +round Calais? It weighs on the soul as a fog +upon the senses, and it seemed to me that only +people of such a tenacious gaiety as the French +or such an independence from environment as the +British could survive there for long. I have seen +country far flatter that was yet more wholesome, +and I loathe flat country. There is something in +the perpetual repetition of form in the country +round Calais, the endless sameness of its differences, +that is peculiarly oppressive. Pearly skies +blotted with paler clouds, endless rows of bare +poplars, like the skeletons of dead flames, yellowish +roads unwinding for ever, acres of unbroken +and sickly green, of new-turned earth of +an equally sad brown ... and over all the trail +of war, whose footprint is desolation. The occupation +even of an army of defence means camp +after camp; tin huts, wooden huts, zinc roofs; +hospitals; barbed wire; mud. And, amidst all +this, and the sudden reminders of more active +warfare in houses crumpled to a scatter of rubble +by a bomb, there are people working, year in,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +year out, undismayed by the sordid litter of +it....</p> + +<p>The saving of it all to the newcomer, though +even that must pall on anyone too accustomed, is +that, like Pater's Monna Lisa, upon this part of +France "the ends of the world are come" ... +(and who shall wonder if in consequence "her eyelids +are a little weary"?). Inscrutable Chinamen, +silent as shadows, flashing their sudden +smiles, even more mysterious than their immobility, +turned from their labour to watch the passing +of the car; Kaffirs from South Africa, each +with a white man's vote, voluntarily enlisted for +the Empire, swung along; vividly dark Portuguese, +clad in grey, came down to their rest camps; Belgians +trotted past with their little tassels bobbing +from their jaunty caps. And, in great droves +along the roads, or, sometimes, more solitary in +the fields, the German prisoners stood at gaze, +their English escort shepherding.</p> + +<p>The first time my companion told me we were +coming on German prisoners, I shut my eyes, determined +to open them unprejudiced, with a vision +clear of all preconceptions; really, at the bottom +of my heart, expecting that I should find them extraordinarily +like anyone else.... But they were +not. They were all so like each other, that by +the time you had seen several hundreds you were +still wondering confusedly whether they were all +relations ... even my Western eye detected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +more difference between the types of Chinamen +I met upon the road than in these Teutons. Of +course, the round brimless cap has something to +do with it, as has the close hair-crop, but when +all is said, how much of a type they are, how +amazingly so, as though they had all been bred +to one purpose through generations! The outstanding +ear, placed very low on the wide neck, +the great development of cheekbones and of the +jaw on a level with the ears, and then the sudden +narrowing at the short chin ... and the florid +bulkiness of them. A detachment of <i>poilus</i> +swung past in their horizon blue, and what a +different type was flashed up against that background +of square jowls, what a thin, nervous, +wiry type, all animation....</p> + +<p>The Germans were so exactly like all the photographs +of prisoners one has seen in the daily +papers that it was quite satisfying; I remember +the same feeling of satisfaction when on first going +to New England I saw a frame house and an old +man with a goatee beard driving a spider-wheeled +buggy, exactly like an illustration out of +<i>Harper's</i>....</p> + +<p>All of which—with the exception of the old +man out of <i>Harper's</i>—is not as irrelevant as it +may appear, in fact, is not irrelevant at all, for +it is these things, this landscape, these varied races, +this whole atmosphere, which goes to make life's +background for everyone quartered hereabouts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +and it is the background which, especially to memory +in after years, makes so great a part of the +whole.</p> + +<p>As we went, remember, I still knew nothing +about the work I had come out to see or the lives +of those employed in it, I could only watch flashing +past me the outward setting of those lives, and +try, from the remarks of my companion, to build +up something else. Yet what I built up from him, +as what I had built up from the talk at my hotel +the night before, was more the attitude of the men +towards the women than the attitude of the women +towards their life, though it was none the less +interesting for that. And here I may as well +record, what I found at the beginning—and I saw +no reason to reverse my judgment later on—and +that was no trace of sex-jealousy in any department +whatsoever. I only met genuine unemotional, +level-headed admiration on the part of the +men towards the women working amongst them. +The D. of T. was no exception, and opined that +if the war hadn't done anything else, at least it +had killed that irritating masculine "gag" that +women couldn't work together. For that, after +all, will always be to some minds the surprise of +the thing—not that women can work with men, +but that they can work together.</p> + +<p>"People talk a lot," he said reflectively, "about +what's to happen after the war ... when it's all +over and there's nothing left but to go home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +What's going to happen to all these girls, how +will they settle down?"</p> + +<p>"And how do you think...?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think there'll be any trouble whether +they marry or not. They will have had their +adventure."</p> + +<p>I looked at him and thought what a penetrating +remark that was. Later, in view of what I +came to think and be told, I wondered whether +it were true after all; later still came to what +seems to me the solution of it, or as much of a +solution as that can be which still leaves one with +an "I wonder...."</p> + +<p>He told me tales of the Fannies who, being +now under the Red Cross, came directly under +his jurisdiction. He told me of a lonely outpost +at the beginning of the war where there was only +one surgeon and two Fannies, and how for twenty-four +hours they all three worked, "up to the knees +in blood," amputating, tying up, bandaging, without +rest or relief. How the whole of the work +of the convoying of wounded for the enormous +Calais district was done entirely by the girls, of +how, at this particular Fanny convoy to which +we were going, they were raided practically every +fine night, and that their camp was in about the +"unhealthiest spot," as regarded raids, in the district. +How during the last raid nine aerial torpedoes +fell around the camp, and exploded, and +one fell right in the middle and did not explode,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +or there would have been very little Fanny Convoy +left ... but how it made a hole seven feet +deep and weighed a hundred and ten pounds and +stood higher than a stock-size Fanny. And, +crowning touch of jubilation to the Convoy, of how +the French authorities had promised to present it +to them after it was cleaned out and rendered innocuous, +to their no small contentment. As well-earned +a trophy as ever decorated a mess-room....</p> + +<p>He talked very like a nice father about to show +off his girls and back them against the world.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>MY FIRST CONVOY</h3> + + +<p>We arrived on a great day for the Fannies—the +famous Aerial Torpedo had preceded us by +a bare hour. There it lay, on the floor of the +mess-room, reminding me, with its great steel +fins and long rounded nose, of a dead +shark. The Commandant showed it us with +pride, and every successive Fanny entering was +greeted with the two words—"It's come." The +D. of T. swore he would have it mounted on +a brass and mahogany stand with an engraved +plate to tell its history. Two strong Fannies +reared it up, for even empty its weight was noteworthy, +and it stood on its murderous nose with +its wicked fins, the solid steel of one of them bent +and crumpled like a sheet of paper, above my +head. A great trophy, and a hard-earned one.</p> + +<p>This was the first camp I saw, and a very good +one as camps go. (I merely add that latter sentence +because personally I think any form of community +life the most terrible of hardships.) It is +rather pathetic to see how, in all the camps in +France, the girls have managed to get not only as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +individual but as feminine touches as possible. I +never saw a woman's office anywhere in France +that was not a mass of flowers; and window-boxes, +flower-beds, basins of bulbs, are cultivated everywhere. +Every office, too, though strictly businesslike, +has chintz curtains of lovely colours. You +can always tell a woman's office from a man's, +which is a good sign, and should hearten the pessimists +who cry that this doing of men's work will +de-feminise the women.</p> + +<p>The Commandant at this Fannies' camp took +me into her office, and she and the D. of T.—who +chimed in whenever he thought she was not +saying enough in praise of his admired Fannies—told +me the rough outlines of the history of the +body since the beginning of the war. Though +now affiliated to the Red Cross, they were an +independent body before the war, and when hostilities +broke out were a mounted corps, with horse +ambulances. They offered themselves to the English +authorities, were refused, and came out to +the war-zone and worked for the Belgians for +fourteen months. They ran a hospital in Calais +staffed by themselves for nurses and with Belgian +doctors and orderlies. Then, in the beginning of +1916 they offered to drive motor ambulances and +thus release Red Cross men drivers, and now they +are running, with the exception of two ambulances +for Chinese, the whole of the Calais district, +and have released many A.S.C. men as well.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +It is a big area, with many outlying camps where +there are detached units. As a rule, there is only +one girl to each ambulance, but in very lonely +spots the allowance is three girls to two cars. At +St. Omer the authorities at first objected to having +them, but now they have taken over the whole of +the Red Cross and A.S.C. ambulances there.</p> + +<p>At this camp that I saw, they have no day or +night shifts, as there is not much night work +except during a push, when everyone works night +and day without more than a couple of hours' +sleep snatched with clothes on—indeed, I heard +of a convoy where for a fortnight the girls never +took off their clothes, but just kept on with fragmentary +rests. The other occasion when there is +night work is when there is a raid. As I have +said, the camp is in a peculiarly unhealthy spot +for bombs, and until just lately the girls had no +raid-shelter. Now one has been dug for them, +roofed with concrete and sandbags and earth, +which would stand anything short of a direct hit +from some such pleasant little missile as is now the +pride of the camp.</p> + +<p>But at first, even when the raid-shelter was built, +there was no telephone extension to it from the +office, and therefore the Commandant had to stay +in the office with one other to take the telephone +calls, then had to cross the open, in full raid, and +going to the mouth of the shelter call out the +names of the girls whose turn it was to drive the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +ambulances. She told it me as exemplifying the +spirit of the girls, that never once, through all +the noise and danger, did a girl falter, always +answered to her name and came coolly and unconcernedly +up the steps and went across to her car. +But it seemed to me that it was as good to sit +quietly in a matchboard office and await the messages, +to say nothing of taking them across that +danger zone. Now an order has gone forth that +the ambulances are not to start till the raid is over, +as they are too precious to be risked.</p> + +<p>It is not a bad record, this continuous service of +the Fannies since the outbreak of war, is it?</p> + +<p>For remember it is not work that can be taken +up and dropped. You sign on for six months at +a time, and only have two fortnights of leave in +the year. And the girls sign on, again and again; +they are nearly all veterans at it. And, comfortable +as the camp has been made—all the necessities +of life are provided by the War Office and +the "frills" by the Red Cross—and in spite of the +tiny separate cubicles—greatest blessing of all—decorated +to taste by the owner, in spite of everything +that can be done to make the girls happy +and keep them well—it is still a picnic. And a +picnic may be all very well for a week or even +a fortnight, but a picnic carried on over the years +is not at all the same thing....</p> + +<p>Certainly they all seemed very happy, and are +all very well. Girls who go out rather delicate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +soon become strong in the hard open air life, and +there has not been a single case of strain from +working the heavy ambulances. The girls do all +cleaning and oiling of the cars themselves, and +all repairs with the exception of the very complicated +cases, for which they are allowed to call on +the help of two mechanics, but only after the request +has gone through those in authority.</p> + +<p>The domestic staff, with the exception of one +Frenchwoman in the kitchen, is supplied by the +girls themselves, and on this subject of domestic +staffs in France I shall say more later. Their +food is Army rations, which are excellent, as I can +testify after straitened England—supplemented by +milk and fresh vegetables, while the Red Cross +gives the extras of life such as custard, cornflower, +etc.</p> + +<p>When at tea I saw butter brought forth in a +lordly dish and was told to take as much as I +liked on hot toast, I felt it was a solemn moment. +There seemed a very care-free atmosphere about +the Fannies, and at this camp the Commandant +was known as "Boss," a respectful familiarity I +did not meet anywhere else. Some irreverent +soul had even inscribed it on the door of her +cubicle. The Fannies "break out," so to speak, +all over the place; even the bath-room is not sacred +to them. It is a pathetic sight, that bath-room +of the Fannies, more pathetic, I thought it, after +I had seen the rows of big baths in other camps.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +The Fannies have a limited and capricious water +supply, and their bath is so small as to remove +forcibly the temptation for one person to use it +all up. Perched on two stalks of stone stands +a long bath in miniature, long enough to sit in +with the knees up, but of no known human size. +Inscribed above it—(under a fresco in black and +white of cats in the moonlight)—are these touching +words: "Do not turn on the hot water when +the cold is off or the Boiler will Bust."</p> + +<p>Everything I have been saying and describing +is external, I know, but you see I was still grasping +at externals, though underneath certain things +were beginning to worry me. But I couldn't bring +myself to voice anything I was wondering to these +splendid strangers; later, though I never was with +any one convoy more than a night, still I got the +feeling that seeing so many of them had made me +more familiar with the ones I happened to be with +at the time, and so I screwed myself up to the +point and was richly rewarded. But that, as Mr. +Kipling would say, is another story.</p> + +<p>We drove away in the windy evening, past the +parked rows of great glossy ambulances, and I +bore with me chiefly an impression of gaiety, of +a set purpose, of a certain schoolgirlish humour +and that knack of making the best of everything +which community life engenders when it does not +do exactly the reverse; of long wooden huts that +might have been bare but were decked with pictures,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +patterned chintzes, bookshelves, cushions; +and above all, I took an impression of a certain +quality that I can only describe as "stark" in the +girls, though that is too bleak a word for what I +mean. It is a sort of splendid austerity, that pervades +their look and their outlook, that spiritually +works itself out in this determined sticking at the +job, this avoidance of any emotion that interferes +with it, and in their bodies expresses itself in a +disregard for appearances that one would never +have thought to find in human woman. It leaves +you gasping. They come in, windblown, reddened, +hot with exertion, after recklessly abandoning +their hands to all the harsh treatment of a +car—the sacrifice of the hands is no small one, +and every girl driving a car makes it—they come +in, toss their caps down, brush their hair back +from their brow in the one gesture that no woman +has ever permitted to herself or liked in a lover—and +they don't mind.</p> + +<p>It is amazing, that disregard for appearances, +but of course it is partly explained by the fact +that the natural tendency in young things would +be to accentuate anything of that kind once it was +discovered ... and for the rest—I really think +they are too intent on what they are doing and +care too little about themselves or what anyone +may be thinking of them. What a blessed freedom!... +This at last is what it is to be as free +as a man.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>OUTPOSTS</h3> + + +<p>It is a matter of temperament whether community +life, with its enforced lack of individualism, +or the intense refraction engendered +by the fact of two people only living together in +a solitude, is the more trying. In the former +state one may hope to attain isolation from the +very superabundance of personalities all around, +but for the latter there is at least this to be said, +that if the two feel like leaving each other alone +there is no distraction of noise and presences. +Either is a test to persons who are sensitive about +their right to solitude, a greater one than to those +who mix happily with their fellow humans. Both +are to be found in their best expression among the +English girls in France. From the Fanny convoy +to a lonely rest station was a change that set me +thinking over the problem, a problem in which I +was a mere observer, but which all these girls +had solved each in her different way, doubtless, +but as far as I could tell, to the nicest hair-fine +edge of success.</p> + +<p>My first rest station was in an out-of-the-way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +little place, bleak and treeless, and consisted of +a wooden hut built alongside the railway line. In +this hut lived the two V.A.D.'s who ran the show—which +means that they do the cooking for themselves +and for the trains which they supplied with +food, that they dispense medicines for the patients +who appear daily at sick parade, and give +first aid to accidents, change dressings if any cases +on a hospital train need it, feed stretcher-bearers +and ambulance drivers, whose hours often prevent +them getting back to billets for regular meals, take +in nurses who are either arriving or leaving by +a night train and would otherwise have nowhere +to go, and in their spare time—if you can imagine +them having any—grow their own vegetables, and +make bandages, pillows, and other supplies for the +troops. Just two girls, voluntary unpaid workers, +who are nurses, needle-women, doctors, chemists, +gardeners and general servants, and whose +work can never be done, or, when done, has to +begin at once all over again. No recreation except +what they find in books and themselves, +nowhere to go, and that perpetual silhouette of +railway trucks and the hard edge of station roof +out of the window, of shabby houses and their own +tiny yard at the back, the noise of shunting and +train whistling in their ears night and day, and +with it all—worst touch of the lot—to have to do +their own work for themselves.</p> + +<p>To slave for others all day as long as you can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +come in and find things ready for you at night—your +hot cocoa in its cup and your hot-water bag—that +great consolation of the women members +of the B.E.F.—in your bed, is endurable. But +to come in and have no cocoa if you don't make +it yourself, no bag if you don't see to it—that is +a different affair, and that is where these two +girls seemed to me to touch a point that of necessity +the others I had seen did not. And now that +women are doing men's work it is to be supposed +they have found out the value of meals and no +longer look on an egg with one's tea as the greatest +height to which nourishment need rise, and +hence have honourably to set about cooking for +themselves—and there is no woman but will understand +the boredom of that—the rations that a +paternal army insists on showering upon them. +Under such circumstances to work is human, but +to eat divine.</p> + +<p>As I stepped out of the car at the door, feeling +terribly impertinent at this rolling round in +luxury to gaze at the work of my betters, one of +the V.A.D.'s came to the door of the shanty to +greet us. She was a fair creature, with windblown +yellow hair and a smut which kindly accident had +placed exactly like an old-time patch upon the +curve of one flushed cheek. She was wrapped +in a big pinafore of butcher blue, and explained +that she was "cleaning up."</p> + +<p>It all looked very clean to me, certainly the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +little dispensary, the room into which you first +walked, was spotless, everything ranged ready for +Sick Parade, glass, white enamel, metal, shining +in the shaft of sunlight which came palely in at +the open doorway. To the left was the kitchen, +stone-floored, fitted with an English stove, to the +right the tiny slip of sitting-room from which +opened the two still narrower little bedrooms. +That was all.</p> + +<p>This is the atmosphere in which the two girls +live, but, as usual, they have done everything that +is possible with it. Brilliant curtains, pictures, +rows of books—the rest stations keep up a sort of +circulating library, exchanging their books from +time to time amongst themselves by way of the +ambulance trains, which are thus supplied with a +library also—and charming pottery ranged along +the shelves. The rest stations rather make a +point of their pottery. It is their tradition always +to drink out of bowls instead of cups, and their +plates have the triumphant Gallic cock, in bravery +of prismatic plumage, striding across them.</p> + +<p>After I had said good-bye to the golden girl +of the inspired smut, I went on to a bigger rest +station at a terminus and was in time to lunch +there. It was a more sophisticated affair than +that which I had left, yet when this rest station +was started, at the beginning of the war, its habitation +was a railway truck—for the romance of +which some of those who were there in that first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +rush, when you were never off your feet for +twenty-four hours at a time, sometimes sigh....</p> + +<p>Now part of the station buildings has been partitioned +off for them, and there is a fairly big +dispensary, with a bed for dressings and accident +cases, of which quite a number are brought in, a +kitchen, a little dining-room where all the furniture +is home-made—deep chairs out of barrels and +the like—and behind that a big storeroom, +crammed from floor to ceiling with stores. The +girls do not sleep here, but in billets at the town, +but they have to provide meals at any hour and +meet all the ambulance trains with food and extra +comforts.</p> + +<p>We had a very good lunch, of stew and onions +and potatoes, big bowls of steaming coffee, and +a pudding with raisins, all cooked by one of the +V.A.D. domestic staff, who always had to slip into +her place last to eat it, and get out of it first to +serve the next course. I saw only these two rest +stations, each typical in its way, the one of the +isolated and the other of the central kind, but they +are scattered up and down the line, varying in +character according to the needs of the particular +place.</p> + +<p>At one, for instance, there is a small ward +attached, where slight cases, not bad enough to +be admitted to the hospital, and yet requiring some +attention, can be kept for a day or two, thus +possibly avoiding serious illness. Near to this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +same one is a Labour Battalion, many of the men +from which are out-patients whose medical inspection +is held at the rest station. Near another is +a large convalescent camp, the O.C. of which +looks to the V.A.D.'s of the rest station for help +in various ways.</p> + +<p>At them all there is always the work of feeding +the stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers, +who in times of pressure have to spend many +hours at their work of unloading the trains without +any chance of getting a regular meal. In the +early days of the rest stations, when the ambulance +trains were often merely improvised, food +and dressings had to be provided for all the +wounded on board, but now, when the working of +the British Red Cross is as near perfection as +any human organisation well can be, the men have +every care taken of them on the perfectly-fitted +trains. Yet there is much attention given to the +sick and wounded of every nation who come in on +the trains, attention chiefly consisting of the giving +of extra comforts—cocoa, lemons, shirts, slippers, +cigarettes, cushions—and the re-dressing of +wounds, while a great deal as well as feeding them +is done for the staffs of the trains, for whom, besides +the lending library, an exchange of gramophone +records and of laundry has been arranged.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most interesting thing to note about +the rest stations is that they are one of the few +points of contact between the members of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +B.E.F. and the French population. Our camps, +our hospitals, our motor convoys, are all little +Englands in themselves, but every morning to +the sick parade of these rest stations come not +only the local V.A.D.'s and ambulance drivers, +but the French civilian population as well, and +in greater and greater numbers. Accidents are +brought to a rest station very often in preference +to being taken anywhere else, and anxious +mothers bring Jean or Marie when a mysterious +ailment shows itself in untoward spot or sneeze. +The Gallic cock is more than a decoration as he +strides across the pottery of the rest stations—he +is become a symbol as well.</p> + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES</h3> + + +<p>When I spoke at H.Q. of the depression I +found in all the landscape around and of its peculiar +morbid quality, nearly everyone assured me +that I should find the country round E——, +whither I was going, far more depressing. "There +is nothing but sand dunes and huts, miles of huts, +hospitals and camps and so on...." It did not +sound very delightful.</p> + +<p>But to differing vision, differing effects, and +personally, I loved E——; terrible as cities of +huts generally are, here they seemed to me to +have lost much of their terror. I loved the long +rippling lines of dunes, the decoration of hundreds +of tall pines that came partly against the +sandy pallor, partly against the vivid steely blue +of the river beyond, I loved the bare woods we +passed all along the road, the trees still not perceptibly +misted with buds but giving, with their +myriads of fine massed twigs, an effect of clouded +wine-colour. And was there ever such a countryside +for magpies? Superstition dies before +their numbers, helpless to count them, so far are +they beyond the range of sorrow, mirth, marriage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +and birth, at any one glance. Everywhere +through those winey woods there went up the +fanlike flutter of black-and-white, the only positive +notes in all the delicate universe, compact +of pearly skies, dim purples of earth, and pale +irradiation of the sun.</p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;"> +<img src="images/gs02a.png" width="406" height="261" alt="QUEEN INSPECTING VAD DOMESTIC STAFF" title="" /> +<span class="caption">H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A "VAD" DOMESTIC STAFF</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"> +<img src="images/gs02b.png" width="429" height="300" alt="V. A. D MOTOR CONVOY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">A V. A. D. MOTOR CONVOY</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;"> +<img src="images/gs03a.png" width="404" height="300" alt="WAAC GARDENERS WORK IN CEMETERY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 355px;"> +<img src="images/gs03b.png" width="355" height="300" alt="WREATHS MOTHERS OF FALLEN" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<p>On the roads there was the usual medley of +the races of the world, added to as we neared +E—— by Canadian nurses in streaming white +veils and uniforms of brilliant blue, and also—for +surely the most delightful of created blessings +may rank as a race of the world—by the +glossy golden war-dogs, who also have their +training camp near here, and take their walks +abroad, waving their plumy tails and jumping +up on their masters, like any leisured dog at home.</p> + +<p>But—to my sorrow—I was not sent to look at +war-dogs, and so had to pass by and leave the +wagging plumes behind. I had several ends in +view at E——; I had to see the large Waac camp +there, its outflung ramifications, and the work that +the Waacs did in the men's camps; and I had to +see the V.A.D. Motor Convoy, at which I was +to spend a night. Incidentally, I had high hopes +of getting permission to go out in an ambulance +with the latter, though it is against the most sacred +Army Orders for anyone not in uniform to be +seen upon an ambulance. Here I may say that +the permission was granted by a powerful individual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +known as the D.D.M.S., though he mentioned +that being shot at dawn was the least painful +thing that ought to happen to me for doing it.</p> + +<p>I was going first to the Waac headquarters, to +see the Area Controller, who corresponds to an +Area Commandant in the V.A.D.'s and whose +rank approximates to that of a Major. She is +supreme in her area and only the Chief Controller +of the Waacs is above her. Below her are +her Unit Administrators, who are in charge of +units and approximate to captains, and have their +Deputy and Assistant Administrators whom for +convenience' sake we can classify as lieutenants +and second lieutenants.</p> + +<p>This is the place to say frankly that I had heard—as +had we all—"the rumors" that were flying +round about the Women's Army. They "weren't +a success," ... "it had been found to be unworkable ..." +and, as reason, a more specific +charge. Need I say what that specific charge +was? What is it that always jumps to the mind +of the average materialist? The most innocent +thing in the world—in itself—and the cause of +most of the scandal since the dawn of civilisation. +A Baby.</p> + +<p>There is a certain type of mind which always +jumps to babies, apparently looking on them as +the Churchmen of the Middle Ages looked on +women—as the crowning touch of evil in an evil +world. If you remember, there was great agitation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +in certain quarters at the beginning of the +war, over "War-Babies." They were going to +inundate the country, they were going to be a very +serious proposition indeed. The Irish question, +Conscription, Conscientious Objectors, were going +to be as nothing to the matter of the War-Babies. +It is perhaps from some points of view a pity that +the War-Babies didn't materialize, but that of +course is another question altogether. "Passons +oultre," as the great Master of delicate—and +indelicate—situations used to say.</p> + +<p>The point as regards the Women's Army is that +the whole of the agitation against it is a libel, and +one which decent people should be ashamed to circulate +even as supposititious. Quite apart from +the evidence of my own ears and eyes, at various +camps I was supplied with the official statistics for +the Women's Army from March of 1917 to February +of 1918. And of these women who "have +not been a success," as the mischievous gossip has +had it, how many do you think have proved failures +out of six thousand? In the time mentioned +fourteen have been sent home for incompetence, +without any slur on their characters; twenty-three +for lack of discipline, mostly in the early days +when the girls did not realise what being in the +Army meant and thought if they wanted to go to +any particular place there was no reason why +they shouldn't; and fifteen who were already +<i>enceinte</i> before leaving England and which even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +the most censorious can hardly lay to the charge +of the B.E.F. And of all that six thousand what +percentage do you suppose has had to be sent back +for what is euphemistically known, I believe, as +"getting into trouble," since landing in France? +No percentage at all, if I may express myself thus +unmathematically, but exactly five cases. Five, +out of six thousand. Compare that with the +morality of any village in England, or anywhere +else in the world, and then say, if you dare to be +so obviously dishonest, that there is any reason +why the Women's Army should be aspersed.</p> + +<p>These statistics were given to me at the office +of the Area Controller, and later repeated at the +Women's Army H.Q. by the Controller in Chief, +but on that first sunny morning amongst the pines +and pale golden sand-dunes it was naturally the +human and individual side rather than any of +figures, however startling, that claimed the mind +the most. For one thing, I had the actual organisation +and attributes of the Women's Army +to learn. I knew nothing. The actual working +knowledge, apart from impressions and things +learnt only by seeing them, that I gathered during +the days I spent at various Waac centres is +as follows:</p> + +<p>The Women's Army differs from the F.A.N.Y. +and the V.A.D. in being a paid instead of a voluntary +body, in being directly under the Army, not +the Red Cross, and in its members being ranked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +as privates. But it also differs from the G.S.V.A.D., +though that too is paid and its members rank +as privates. The G.S.V.A.D. is far more +"mixed"; its members are of all classes and educations, +and are drafted off for work accordingly, +but the bulk of the Waacs are working girls and +do manual labour, such as gardening, cooking, +baking, scrubbing, etc., though there are amongst +them girls of a more specialised education who +are signallers and clerks. The officers, of course, +are women of education who have undergone a +stiff training and been carefully selected for the +posts they fill. For, as will be seen, nearly everything +depends upon the Waac officers; they have +certainly a greater power for good or harm than +the officers in the Regular Army, and never were +both the force and danger of personality more +acutely illustrated than in the position of the +Waac leaders.</p> + +<p>A Unit Administrator has to know individually +every girl in her camp, though there may be several +hundreds. She has to blend with her absolute +authority a maternal interest and supervision. +While she has no power to say whom a girl shall +or shall not "walk out" with, she yet makes it her +business to know what choice of men friends the +girl makes and to influence, as far as she can, that +choice towards discretion. She must not nag but +must inculcate by subtle methods a realisation of +what is due to the uniform, a sense of the "idea,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +the "symbol," of it. She does not actually say to +a girl that she is not to walk arm in arm with a +Tommy or pin her collar with her paste brooch, +but she conveys to her that these things are not +done in the best uniforms.... And the girl learns +with incredible rapidity. A thing is Not Done—what +a potency in those words; in that attitude +of mind! It probably influenced the earliest savages +in the manner of wearing their cowries.</p> + +<p>After all, the whole idea of uniform, of distinguishing +one caste from another by bits of different +coloured cloth, is based on the instinct +for being superior. Was it not John Selden who +said something to the effect that our rulers have +always tried to make themselves as different from +us as possible? Of course they have, and it is exactly +the same thing which the wise Pope Gregory +VII had in mind when he definitely crystallised +the measures for celibacy of the priesthood, and +it is exactly the same thing which puts the policeman +into a dark blue uniform and a helmet before +he can so much as stop a milkcart. A policeman +in plain clothes is a dethroned monarch. Nothing +in the nature of controlling others was ever +done without dressing up. The marvel is that +for so many centuries the principle should have +been confined to the masculine sex, when it has +such an obvious appeal to the feminine.</p> + +<p>This principle when carried a step further and +applied to those controlled, by giving them also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +the sensation of being different from the rest of +the world, results in that spirit called <i>esprit de +corps</i>, which is really <i>esprit de l'uniforme</i>. Towards +the rest of the world the uniformed are +proud of being different, amongst themselves +proud of being alike, and the more alike, so to +speak, the aliker. It is not a thing to treat scornfully, +for it has the whole of symbolism behind +it. That which makes a man cheerfully die for +a piece of bunting which, prosaically speaking, <i>is</i> +only a piece of bunting that happens to be dyed +red, white, and blue, is part of this same spirit. +Dull of soul indeed must he be who can look without +a profound emotion on the tattered "colours" +of a regiment, and yet it is only the idea, the +symbol, that makes these things what they are....</p> + +<p>And for most of these girls, remember, it is +the first time they have had a symbol held before +them.... We of the upper classes are brought +up with many reverences—for our superiors, our +elders, for traditions, but the classes which for +want of a better word I must call "lower"—so +please do not cavil at me for doing so or attribute +false meanings—are for the most part brought up +to think themselves as good as anyone else, and +their "rights" the chief thing in life; while owing +to the unfortunate curriculum of our Board +Schools, which does not insist nearly enough on +history as the fount of the present and of all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +is great and good in the past, they are left without +those standards of impersonal enthusiasms and +imaginative daring—which should be the rightful +inheritance of us all.</p> + +<p>These girls are now given an abstract idea to +live up to, no mere standard of expediency, but +an idea that appeals to the imagination. And how +magnificently they are responding those statistics +show, but more still does the attitude of all the +officers and men who have to do with them. I +talked with all ranks on the subject, and never +once did I meet with anything but admiration and +enthusiasm. The men are touchingly grateful to +them and value their work and their companionship. +For, very wisely, the girls are encouraged +to be friends with the men, are allowed to walk +out with them, to give teas and dances for them +in the Y.W.C.A. huts, and to go to return parties +given by the men in the Y.M.C.A. huts. It is, +of course, easy to sneer at the ideal which is held +before the men, of treating these girls as they +would their sisters, but the fact remains that they +very beautifully do so.</p> + +<p>Another point to be remembered is, that, far +from these girls being exposed to undue temptation, +the great majority of them have never been +so well looked after as now. They are mostly +girls of a class that knows few restrictions, who, +with the exception of those previously in domestic +service, have always had what they call their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +"evenings," when they roamed the streets or went +to the cinemas with their "boys."</p> + +<p>Now every Waac has to be in by eight, can go +nowhere without permission, is carefully though +unostentatiously shepherded, and is provided with +healthy recreation, such as Swedish exercises, +Morris dancing, hockey, and the like. In short, +she is now looked after and guarded as young +girls of the educated classes are normally.</p> + +<p>And these are the girls, good, honest, hard-working +creatures, who have been maligned in +whispers and giggles up and down the country. +It is perhaps needless to say that they are naturally +very indignant over it, that the parents of +many write to them agitatedly to demand if it's +all true and to beg them to come back, and that +sometimes, when they are home on leave, instead +of their uniforms bringing them the respect and +honour they deserve and which every man overseas +accords to them, they are subjected to insult +from people who have nothing better to do than +to betray to the world the pitiable condition of +their own nasty minds.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE BROWN GRAVES</h3> + + +<p>When first one has dealings with the Waacs +and their officers, one imagines distractedly that +one has fallen among Royalty. This is +because the word "Ma'am" is always used by a +Waac when speaking to another of superior rank, +till you very nearly find yourself bobbing. Later +this impression is strengthened by the memory for +faces which every Waac officer displays in a manner +one has always been taught to consider truly +royal. It is only among themselves that any +titles exist; to the outside world, even the Army +officers, each Waac officer is mere "Mrs." or +"Miss," whichever she may chance to be. The +"putting on of frills" has been avoided with extraordinary +dexterity; there is just enough ritual +to make the girls feel they belong to an organised +body, without the enemy being given occasion to +blaspheme by saying that women like playing at +being men. In France, though not in England, +the girls salute their officers, as this helps them to +get at the "idea" of the thing—that feeling of +being part of an ordered whole, which is so valuable.</p> + +<p>In the matter of uniforms, someone at the War<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +Office, or wherever these things are thought out, +has really had a rather charming series of inspirations. +At first the women wore the same badges +as denote the ranks of soldiers, but a paternal—or +should one not almost say maternal?—Government +evidently thought that not feminine enough, +and now the badges of varying rank are roses, +fleur-de-lys and laurel leaves, a touch which would +have delighted old Andrew Marvell.</p> + +<p>One of the chief activities of the Waacs is cooking, +and when, escorted by the D.D.M.S., whom +I have before mentioned, I arrived at the little +wooden office amidst the pines, it was to hear a +one-sided conversation on the telephone between +the Area Controller and various great ones of the +earth who were frantically ringing up for cooks. +Also a new Officers' Club for senior officers wanting +a rest from the firing line is just being opened +near E——, and it is to be staffed by Waacs and +the cook is to be of the very best. Punch's immortal +advice as to the treatment of husbands is +not forgotten by the Waac controllers when questions +of this kind arise.</p> + +<p>After talk of cooks came the seeing of cooks, in +a big camp and Small Arms school near. Kitchens +are kitchens and mess-rooms mess-rooms +everywhere you go, and beyond a general impression +of extreme cleanliness, an extraordinarily appealing +smell of stew, and the sight of great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +branches of mimosa set about the long mess tables, +there is nothing of particular interest to describe. +The point is that all the preparing and the serving +of food in this great camp for officers and +men is done by women and that all the male creatures +are unreservedly jubilant at the change. +The C.O. expressed his hope that after the war the +W.A.A.C. would continue as a permanent part of +the Army, while a sergeant gave it as his opinion +that the women managed to introduce so much +more variety into the preparation of the food than +the men had done. Also, he added that they +wasted much less.</p> + +<p>In every kitchen there is a forewoman cook—there +are these forewomen in every department +of the work of the women, and they correspond +rather to the "noncoms" among the men. At +present they are distinguished by a bronze laurel +leaf and always have their own mess-room and +sitting-room as distinct from the rest of the girls, +but it is rather an influence than an authority which +is vested in them, though the advisability of definitely +endowing them with more of the latter is +being considered. They "answer," as the rest of +the Waac machinery does, extremely well.</p> + +<p>An interesting point about army kitchens, as +they are run nowadays, is that after the amount +of fats necessary to the cooking has been put +aside, the rest is poured into great tins, graded +according to its quality, and sent home for munitions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +We are getting things down to the fine +edge of no-waste at last, and the women are helping +to do it.</p> + +<p>At another camp I found the C.O. most anxious +for the women to start a Mending Factory—it +would be such a help to the men, who, unlike sailors, +are not adept at the repairing of their clothes. +Also a laundry, he intimated, would be necessary +really to round off the scheme satisfactorily. Both +these are thoroughly sound suggestions that may +yet, let us hope, come to something, though they +would be in a sense breaking new ground, as the +idea of the Waacs is that they actually replace +men. Each cook releases one man, while among +the clerks at present the ratio is four women to +three men. And there are already six thousand +Waacs in France.... Does not this give the obvious +reason why slanders, started by enemy +agents, have been busy trying to drive the +Women's Army out of France?</p> + +<p>Every Waac who goes to France is like the +pawn who attains the top of the chessboard and +is exchanged for a more valuable piece. She sends +a fighting man to his job by taking on the jobs that +are really a woman's after all. For is it not +woman's earliest job to look after man?</p> + +<p>She looks after him to keep him well and strong, +she looks after him when he is ill—and now, in +France, she looks after the gallant dead, who are +lying in the soil for which they fought. Between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +the pines and the gleaming river with its sandy +shoals are the rows of crosses, sparkling, the ash +grey wood of them, in the effulgence of the spring +light, making hundreds of points of brightness +above the earth still brown and bare, that soon, +under the gardeners' care, will blossom like the +rose. Not a desert even now—for no place where +fighters rest is a desert—but a place expectant, +full of the promise of beauty to come, an outward +beauty which is what it calls for as its right, because +it is holy ground. Not only in the merely +technical sense as the consecrated earth of quiet +English cemeteries, where lie all, both those who +lived well and those who lived basely, but holy +as a place can only be when it is held by those who +all died perfectly....</p> + +<p>Here and there, among the earth-brown graves, +stooping above them, are the earth-brown figures +of the gardeners. Every grave is freshly raked, +moulded between wooden frames to a flat, high +surface where the flowers are to overflow, and +above every raised daïs of earth the bleached +wood of the cross spreads its arms, throwing a +shadow soft and blue like a dove's feather, a +shadow that curves over the mound and laps down +its edge lightly as a benison. On each cross is the +little white metal plate giving the name and regiment +of the man who lies beneath and the letters +R.I.P. Here and there is an ugly stiff wreath +of artificial immortelles beneath a glass frame, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +pathetic offering of those who came from England +to lay it there.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a wreath fresh and green shows that +someone who loves the dead man has sent money +with a request that flowers shall be bought and +put upon his grave on the anniversary of his death. +Sometimes, when they come over from England, +these poor people break down and turn blindly, +as people will for comfort, to the nearest sympathy, +to the women gardeners who are showing +them the grave they came to see. And a sudden +note of that deep undercurrent which at times of +stress always turns the members of either sex to +their own sex for comfort sends the women mourners +to the arms of the women who are working +beside them. Sentiment, if you will—but a sentiment +that is stirred up from the deep and which +would scorn the apologies of the critical.</p> + +<p>And what of the girls who work daily on that +sacred earth, who see before their eyes, bright in +the sun, inexpressibly grey and dauntless in the +rain, those serried rows of crosses, all so alike +and each standing for a different individuality, a +different heartbreak—Do you suppose that they +will ever again forget the aspect of those silent +witnesses to the splendour and the unselfishness +and the utter release from pettiness of the men +who lie there? This is what it is to make good +citizens, and that is what the members of the +Women's Army are doing daily. They are not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +only doing great things for the men—but they +are making of themselves, come what conditions +may after the war, efficient, big-minded citizens +who will be able to meet with them.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>VIGNETTES</h3> + + +<p>The interesting thing about the various places +where Waacs are housed, which I saw, is that +no two of them were alike in atmosphere. +I had rather dreaded much seeing of camps, but, +as a matter of fact, though I saw two, they were +totally unlike each other, while the other three +places that I saw each had an aspect, a character, +unlike the others. One was a convalescent +home for Waacs, set amidst pine-trees, a house of +deep wide stairs, airy rooms, long cushioned +chairs, and flowers, where one might well be content +to be just-not-well for a long time; the others +were houses where those Waacs lived who were +not in camps.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Four jaunty châlets, chalk-white in the sun, +hung with painted galleries, face the rolling sand-dunes, +behind them the sea, a darker blue than +any of the shadows of land on such a high-keyed +day. They are little pleasure-villas, these châlets, +fancy erections for summer visitors, built in the +days when this little Plage was a resort for Parisians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +playing at rusticity. Delicious artificial useless-looking +creations, bearing apparently about +as much relation to a normal house as a boudoir-cap +does to a bowler. Yet they are charming as +only little French pleasure-villas can be, and to the +receptive mind it is their artificiality that makes +such a delightful note of—well, not decadence, +but dilettantism—in this rolling sandy place, +where only the hand of Nature is to be seen all +around, no town, no village even, impinging on +the curving skylines, the very road up to their +doors but a track in the sand.</p> + +<p>In these villas live incongruous Waacs, their +khaki-clad forms swing up the wooden stairs to +the galleries, and lean from the windows, always +open their widest, night and day. Less incongruous +the stout boots and khaki inside, as, though +the chintzes are bright and gay, there is an aspect +of stern utility, combined with an austerity that +somehow suits the blank sandiness of the surroundings. +In each little scrubbed room are two +beds, each—for the Waacs live in true Army fashion—with +its dark grey blankets folded up at the +head of the bare mattress; in the sick bay alone +the beds are covered with bright blue counterpanes. +In the recreation room and the Forewomen's +Mess are easy chairs of wicker and +flowers and pictures. It is all done as charmingly +as it can be with a strict eye to suitability; +it is community life, of course, but brought as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +nearly as possible to that feeling of individuality +which makes a home with a small "h" instead of +with the dreaded capital.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This other house was as great a contrast to the +bare little châlets as it well could be. It also was +at a Plage, it too had been built for pleasure, but +for pleasure <i>de luxe</i>, not of simple bourgeois families. +The wide hall with its polished floor, its +great carved mantels, its dining-room with gleaming +woods and glossy table and sparkling glass, +its big lounge with tall windows, where the girls +dance and play the piano—all was as different +from the bleached scrubbed wood of the châlets as +it well could be. Yet the spirit informing the +whole was the same, the bedrooms as austere in +essence even if they boasted carved marble-topped +chests, and even here the Army had found things +to improve, such as the making of paths at the +back of the house of round tins sunk in the earth, +and steps of tin biscuit boxes, ingenious arrangements +to save getting your feet wet on a muddy +day as you go in and out on the endless errands +of domesticity. And, as I sat at lunch in the +gleaming dining-room, where the wood fire burned +on the wide stone hearth, I heard the girls practising +for a musical play they were shortly to +produce.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A camp is, of course, a camp, but there is a certain +satisfaction in seeing how well even a necessary +evil can be done. Where all was excellent, +the chief thing that really thrilled me was the +bath-rooms. The Waacs' bath-rooms are the +envy and despair of the Army, who rage vainly +in small canvas tubs. The Engineers are by way +of spoiling the Waacs whenever possible, and bath-rooms, +electric bells, electric light and fancy paths +of tin, spring up before them. There are in every +Waac camp rows of bath-rooms containing each +its full-length bath, and besides that, each girl +has her own private wash-place, in a cubicle for +the purpose. For, as the Chief Controller said +to me, "After all, it does not matter the girls +having to sleep together in dormitories if each +has absolute privacy for washing, that is so much +more important." To which it is quite possible +to retort that there are those of us who would +not mind bathing in front of the whole world if +only we are allowed to sleep by ourselves. But +that is just a different point of view, and as a matter +of fact, for the class from which the greater +part of the Waacs are drawn, privacy in ablutions +ranks as a greater thing than privacy in slumber, +so the psychological instinct which planned the +camps is justified.</p> + +<p>Besides the bath-rooms and the ablution cubicles, +there is in every camp one or more drying-rooms, +which are always heated, and where the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +wet clothes of the girls, who of course have to +be out in all weathers, are hung to dry. Laundry, +kitchens, recreation rooms, mess-rooms, long Nissen +huts for sleeping, I went the round of them all, +and, while genuinely admiring them, admired +still more those who lived in them.</p> + +<p>Personally, I don't like a Nissen hut nearly as +much as the ordinary straight-walled sort. I +know they are wonderfully easy to erect and to +move, but when it comes to trying to tack a picture +on those curved walls.... And the girls +depend so on their little bits of things, such as +pictures and photographs from home. You will +always see in every cubicle, above every bed in a +long hut, the girl's own private gallery, the <i>lares +and penates</i> which make of her, in her bed at +least, an individual. In a Nissen hut you have to +turn your head upside down to get a view of the +picture gallery at all, though it has its advantages +to the girl herself as she lies in bed and can +look at the faces of her parents, absolutely concave, +curving over her nose.</p> + +<p>As I was leaving this camp I heard sounds of +music and the stamping of feet, and going to the +Y.W.C.A. hut the Unit Administrator and I +looked in. There, to a vigorously pounded piano, +an instructress from the Y.M.C.A. was teaching +a dozen or so girls Morris dancing. They +beamed at us from hot glowing faces, these mighty +daughters of the plough, and continued to foot it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +as merrily, if as heavily, as any Elizabethan villagers +dancing in their Sunday smocks around a +Maypole.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>One more camp I saw, on a later day, and +though it was a camp, yet it had that about it +which distinguished it from all others. For it was +built round about a hoary castle, grey with years +and lichen, from whose walls they say Anne +Boleyn looked down, standing beside her robust +and rufous lover on that honeymoon which was +almost all of happiness she was to know.</p> + +<p>Now it is an Army School, and within its grey +walls and towers the officers are billeted and in +its great kitchens the Waacs cook for them and +do all the rest of the domestic work, waiting on +the officers' mess and the sergeants' mess, serving +at the canteen, doing all the cleaning, everything +that there is to be done for a whole army school +of hungry men down on a five-weeks' course, to +say nothing of all the work for themselves in their +camp at the castle's gates, and there are sixty-six +of them, not counting the three officers who are at +every Waac camp—the Unit Administrator, and +the Deputy and Assistant Administrators. It is +hard work, and endless work, and though every +Waac gets a few hours off every day, and though, +as you have seen, everything is done for their +healthy recreation that can be done, yet the life +is one of work and not of fun, and though the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +girls flourish under it, we at home should not forget +that fact when we give them their due meed +of appreciation.</p> + +<p>But, hard as the life is, it seemed to me that at +that camp which has the happiness to be at this +castle, its duress must be assuaged by the beauty +of what is always before the eyes. Buried in +woods it is, still bare when I saw them, but with +the greenish yellow buds of daffodils already beginning +to unfold in great clumps through the +purple-brown alleys, and with primroses making +drifts of honey-pallor and honey-sweetness beside +the slopes of ground ivy, while from beyond the +curving ramparts of the castle shows the steely-quiet +glimmer of a lake.</p> + +<p>For war this castle was built, and war she now +sees once again, for the arts of war are taught +within her walls. And how Anne Boleyn's roving +eyes would have brightened at the sight of so much +youth, at the sound of so many spurs! Let us +hope her sore spirit can still find pleasure in wandering +again over the scenes where she once was +happy, and if she has kept enough of innocent +wantonness to love a straight man when she sees +one, ghost though she be, and if her nose turn up +ever so daintily at the clumsily-clad members of +her own sex, whose toils she would so little understand +... why, she is but a ghost, and the modern +mind must contrive to forgive her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> + +<p>These slight vignettes have all been of vision; +let me add one of a less pictorial nature. The +Unit Administrators, as I have said, have to act +not only as commanding officers, but very often +as mother-confessors as well. Parents write to +them about their daughters, would-be suitors write +to them for permission to marry their charges, +and amongst the letter-bag are often epistles that +are not without their unconscious humour. One +day a mother writes to point out that she and the +rest of the family are changing houses, and so may +Flossie please come home for a few days ... +another mentions that Gladys's letters of late +have been despondent, and please could she be +put to something else that will not depress her? +Then Gladys is had up in front of the Unit Administrator, +and perhaps turns out to be one of the +born whiners found everywhere, perhaps to be +merely suffering from a passing fit of what our +ancestresses would have called the megrims. If +her work is found to be really unfitted to her and +it is possible to give her a change, then it is done, +but as a rule that is seldom the case, as, rather +differently from what we used to hear was the +way in the Army, every Waac Controller finds +out what the girl is best at and what she likes +doing most, and then, as far as possible, arranges +her work accordingly.</p> + +<p>Perhaps a letter comes from a Tommy in His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +Majesty's forces, and begins something like this:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>,</p> + +<p>"I beg to ask your permission to marry +Miss D. Robinson, at present under your command...."</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Unit Administrator writes back that +she will endeavour to arrange leave for the marriage; +and perhaps all goes well, or perhaps some +such lugubrious letter as this will follow:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>,</p> + +<p>"<i>Re</i> Miss D. Robinson, at present under your +command, take no notice of my former letter, as +Miss D. Robinson has broken off the engagement...."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Human nature will be inhuman, in camps and +out of them, and because Miss D. Robinson is doing +a man's work is no reason why she should +shed the privileges of her sex.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>EVENING</h3> + + +<p>Grey rain was falling in straight thin lines +upon the landscape, suddenly changed from its +splendour of sun-bright sands and blue gleaming +river to a blotted greyness. The rain danced +over the trampled earth at the V.A.D. Motor +Convoy Camp, filling the hollows with wrinkled +water and making the great ambulances +shine darkly. It was not a pleasant evening, being +very cold withal, and snow fell amid the rain, +but the Commandant took me out in her car to +give me as comprehensive a view of E—— as +could be seen in the gathering dusk.</p> + +<p>When I say E—— I don't mean the little +French fishing village, near which we did not go, +but the whole vast town of huts set up by the +B.E.F. For E—— is become a town of hospitals. +We swung round corners, down long intersecting +roads, about and about, and always there +were hospitals, long rows of hospitals, each a little +town in itself. I was reminded of nothing so +much as the great temporary townships in the +Canal Zone at Panama. There is just the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +look of permanence combined with the feeling +of it all being but temporary, while materially +there is an air about board and tin buildings which +is the same the world over. I almost expected to +see a negro slouch along with his tools slung on +his back, or to catch sight of the dark film of a +mosquito-proof screen over doors and windows.</p> + +<p>And the Motor Convoy do all of the ambulance +work of the whole big district, which spreads considerably +beyond even this great hospital town. +There are about one hundred and thirty members +in the camp and about eighty of the big Buick +ambulances. Unlike the Fanny convoy I had +seen, there are at E—— always day and night +shifts, a girl being on night duty for one fortnight +and on day duty for the next, except in times +of stress, when everyone works day and night too.</p> + +<p>We came in from our drive in the dark and I +was shown to the room I was to have for as much +of the night as there would be, considering I was +going out on a convoy at one o'clock. It belonged +to a V.A.D. at the moment home on leave, but +she had left a nice selection of bed-books behind +her, for which I was grateful, and there was a +little electric reading lamp perched on the shelf +above the bed. It was a tiny place, but it was +all to myself.</p> + +<p>At supper in the mess-room, with Mr. Leps, the +Great Dane, lying by the stove and the cat curled +between his outflung paws, we were waited on by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +a very pretty V.A.D. with dark eyes and a deeply +moulded face compact of soft curves and pallor. +Afterwards, the Commandant, a few of the girls, +and I went into her room, which was a trifle larger +than the ordinary run, and could be called a sitting-room +at one end, for coffee and cigarettes. +There was a concert on, and I was asked whether +I would like to go to it, and, at the risk of seeming +ungracious, I said if they didn't mind I would +rather not. They said that they would rather not, +too. I had seen the camp before dinner, had +marvelled again how people ever got used to living +in match-boxes and having to cross a strip +of out-of-doors world to meals, and I was only +wanting to sit still, and—if the Fates were kind—listen.</p> + +<p>For all the time, as during the preceding days, +I had felt the depression growing over me, the +terror of this communal life which took all you +had and left you—what? What corner of the +soul is any refuge when solitude cannot be yours +in which to expand it? What vagrant impulse can +be cherished when liberty is not yours to indulge +it?</p> + +<p>These girls, these strong, clear-eyed creatures +whom I had seen, day after day, who had at first +impressed me only with their youth, their school-girl +gaiety, their—<i>horribile dictu</i>—their "brightness"—was +it possible that this life should really +content them? I am not talking now, remember,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +of Waacs, girls mostly of the working class, or of +those used to the sedentary occupation of clerkships, +to whom this life is the biggest freedom, the +greatest adventure, they have known. I am talking +about girls of a class who, in the nature of +things, lived their own lives, before the war, did +the usual social round, went hither and thither +with no man to say them nay—except a father, +who doesn't count. Young <i>femmes du monde</i>, +there is no adequate English for it, sophisticated +human beings.</p> + +<p>For women, even the apparently merely out-of-door +hunting games-playing women, have arrived +at a high state of sophistication; and this life +they now lead is a community life reduced to its +essentials. And a community life, though the +building up of it marked the first stages of civilisation, +is, to the perfected product of civilisation, +anathema. Individuals had to combine to make +the world, but now that it is made, all the instincts +of the most highly developed in it are towards +complete liberty as regards the amount of social +intercourse in which he or she wishes to indulge. +We have fought through thousands of years for +a state of society so civilised that it is safe to withdraw +from it and be alone without one's enemy +tracking one down and hitting one over the head +with an axe.</p> + +<p>This right, fought for through the ascending +ages, these girls have deliberately forgone, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +every man in the Army has to forgo it also. Were +they aware of this? Or did they, after all, like +it, unthinkingly, without analysis?</p> + +<p>I had wondered as I saw my previous convoys +and camps, and I had wondered again as I saw +over this convoy—saw the usual tiny cubicles, +with gay chintz curtains and photographs from +home, and the shelf of books, saw the great bare +mess-rooms, the sitting-room, bright with cushions, +cosy with screens and long chairs, saw the +admirable bath-rooms, with big enamelled baths +and an unlimited supply of hot water, saw the +two parks where the great ambulances were +ranged, shadowy and huge in the growing gloom +and thick downpour of rain. Everywhere smiling +faces, uplifted voices, quick steps—yet I wondered.</p> + +<p>Was it possible this malaise of community life +never weighed on their souls? And, if possible—was +it good that it should be so?</p> + +<p>I managed, stumblingly, to convey something of +my thought, of the depression which had been +eating at me—not, as I tried to explain, that I +didn't admire them all, Heaven knew, rather that +I must be, personally, such a weak-kneed, backboneless +creature to feel I couldn't, for any cause +on earth, have stood it. And I wanted—how I +wanted—to know how it was they did ... +whether they really and actually could like it...? +"Of course, I know," I ended apologetically,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +"some people like a community life——"</p> + +<p>"They must be in love with it to like community +life carried to this extent, then," said one +swiftly, and a small, fair creature, with a ribbon +bound round her hair, agreed with her. She interested +me, that fair girl, because she was one +of those people who feel round for the right word +until they have found it, however long it takes; +impervious to cries of "Go on, get it off your +chest," she still sat quietly and wrestled until the +word came which exactly expressed the fine edge +of her meaning. She knew so well what she +wanted to say that she didn't want to say it any +differently.</p> + +<p>They all talked, each throwing in a sentence to +the discussion now and again, but not one of them +grumbled. Yet they all showed plainly that it +was not a blind enjoyment—or, indeed, much enjoyment +at all—that they found in the life. They +were reasoning, critical, analytic, and extraordinarily +dispassionate.</p> + +<p>I can't put that conversation down for two reasons, +the first being that one doesn't print the talk +of one's hostesses, and the second that it would +be too difficult to catch all those little half-uttered +sentences, those little alleys of argument that led +to understanding, but led elliptically, as is the way +of either sex when it is unencumbered by the necessity +of dotting its i's for the comprehension +of the other. But out of that hour emerged, shining,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +several things which we in England ought to +realise better, and which lifted for me that cloud +of depression which had lowered over me all the +days in France.</p> + +<p>These are not bouncing school-girls, "good fellows" +having the time of their lives, as vaguely +those in England consider them, they are, thank +goodness, finely-evolved human beings who no +more enjoy "brightness" than you or I would. +And it was the terrible feeling that everyone was +so "bright" which had oppressed me more than +anything else. The joy of finding that it wasn't +so, that what I had feared I should be forced to +take as the unreflecting school-girl humour of +overgrown school-girls was only a protective aspect, +that behind it the eyes of not only sane but +subtle young women looked out with amusement +and patience upon a world determined to see in +them, first and last, "brightness"!</p> + +<p>Perhaps five per cent.—such was the estimate +flung out into the talk—of the girls really do enjoy +it, the ghastly, prolonged, cold-blooded picnic +of it, perhaps five per cent. really are having the +"time of their lives," but the rest of them have +moments when it hardly seems possible to stick +it. Yet they stick it, and stick it in good comradeship, +which is the greatest test of the lot. Their +salvation lies in the separate rooms—small, cold, +but a retreat from the octopus of community +life....</p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;"> +<img src="images/gs04a.png" width="432" height="300" alt="WAACS IN BAKERY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WAACS IN THE BAKERY</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;"> +<img src="images/gs04b.png" width="352" height="265" alt="WAAC COOKS" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;"> +<img src="images/gs05.png" width="388" height="388" alt="WAAC ENCAMPMENT SANDBAGS" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SANDBAGS</span> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> +<p> </p> +<p>That concert which I had felt so apologetic not +to attend—what a relief it had been to them that I +didn't want to, didn't want to get "local colour" +and write of them as being so jolly, so gay! For +this again is typical—there are perhaps five girls +out of every hundred who enjoy being amused, to +whom it is all part of the life which they actually +love, but from the greater part goes up the cry, +"Work us as hard as you like, but for Heaven's +sake don't try and amuse us!"</p> + +<p>For, of course, it takes differing temperaments +differently. To some community life is little short +of a nightmare, but to all there come moments +when it is exceedingly maddening. In those moments +your own room or a big hot bath are wonderful +ways of salvation.</p> + +<p>As we talked, from A. came the theory that she +was only afraid it would prevent her ever loving +motors again; and she had always adored motors +as the chief pleasure of life, before they became +the chief business. B. could not agree to that. +C., who did agree, pointed out that it was on the +same principle as never wanting to go back to a +place, no matter how beautiful it was, if you had +been very unhappy there. Even after your unhappiness +was dead and buried it would always +spoil that place for you.... B. said "Yes" to +that, but argued that it would not spoil the beauty +of other places for you, which would be the equivalent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +of this life spoiling all motors for A., after +the war.</p> + +<p>The flaws in the analogy were not pursued, for +D. advanced an interesting theory that the hardest +part of it was that you were so afraid of what +you might be missing all the time somewhere else. +She argued that the difficulty with her had always +been to make up her mind to any one course of +action, because it shut off all the others, and, like +so many of us, she wanted everything....</p> + +<p>A. said that shilly-shalliers never got anywhere, +but I maintained with D. that it wasn't shilly-shallying, +which is another sort of thing altogether, +it was the passionate desire to get the most +out of life, to discover what was most worth +while. "I want to spend ten years in the heart of +China more than to do any one thing," I pointed +out, "but I sha'n't do it because when I came out +I shouldn't be young any more. Therefore the +ten years in China will have to go to a man, because +it doesn't matter so much to a man." This +life in the B.E.F. was D.'s ten years in China, +not because—heaven forbid—it is going to last +ten actual years, or even that, as far as I could +see, it was ageing her at all, but simply because +while she was doing it she couldn't be doing anything +else. She had had to burn her boats.</p> + +<p>Now that, to a certain temperament, means a +great deal, and it is one of the things, if not the +chief thing, that marks service in France off from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +equally hard work at home, and makes it, for reasons +outside the work, so much harder.</p> + +<p>All natures are not the same as D.'s, of course. +To one girl a certain thing is the hardship, to another +a different thing. But the point is that the +hardship is there, not physical, but mental, and to +me it was the most exquisite discovery I could +have made in the whole of France. For the finer +the instrument, the more fine it is of it to perform +the work, and the more finely will that work, +in the long run, be done.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>NIGHT</h3> + + +<p>Not being among the lucky creatures who can +fall happily to sleep when they know they are to +be called at one o'clock, I lay in my tiny bed and +revelled in that wonderful story of "The Bridge +Builders" out of "The Day's Work," till the +sound of the storm without became the voice of +Mother Gunga. Then I turned out the light and +lay and listened to the truly fiendish train whistles +which no reading could have transmuted, and wondered +why it is that French engine drivers apparently +pay no attention to signals, but just go on +whistling till they are answered, like someone +who goes on ringing a bell till at length the door +is opened. The rain was turning to snow, so there +was less of that steady tinkling from without with +which running water fills the world. I lay and +listened; and the whistles and the bellying of the +chintz curtain and the occasional swish of a heavy +gust against the side of the hut were at last beginning +to blend in one blur in my mind when a +girl came softly into my room and whispered that +it was time to dress.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>That utter quietness of the girls was a thing that +had impressed me after staying in hotels full of +the British Army, which goes to bed at midnight, +bangs its doors, throws its boots outside, shouts +from room to room, and begins the whole process, +reversed, at about six o'clock the next morning. +Here the girls wore soundless slippers, so +that those who had to be about should not disturb +those who slept, and doors were opened and shut +with a cotton-wool care which appealed to me, or +would have, if I hadn't had to get up.</p> + +<p>When I was dressed I found my way down endless +blowy corridors, for the doors at the ends +are always kept open, to the room of the girl who +had called me. She looked at my fur coat and +said it would get spoilt. I replied with great truth +that it was past spoiling, but she took it off me, +whipped my cap from my head, and the girls +proceeded to dress me. They pulled a leather +cap with ear-pieces down on my head and stuffed +me into woolly jackets and wound my neck up in +a comforter and finished up with a huge leather +coat and a pair of fur gloves like bear's paws, +so that when all was done I couldn't bend and +had to be hoisted quite stiff up to the front of the +ambulance.</p> + +<p>But first we all went into the kitchen, where +part of the domestic staff sits up all night to prepare +food for the night drivers. There we drank +the loveliest cocoa I ever met, the sort the spoon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +would stand up in, piping hot, out of huge bowls. +Then my driver and the section leader for the +night led me across the soaking park to where, +in almost total darkness, girls were busy with +their ambulances. I was hoisted up beside my +driver and endeavoured clumsily with my bear's +paws to fasten the canvas flap back across the side +as I was bidden. I may say that I felt extraordinarily +clumsy amongst these girls, most of whom +could have put me in their pockets. They knew +so exactly what to do, their movements were all +so perfectly adjusted to their needs, they knew +where everything was, while I fumbled for steps +and hoped for the best.... They made me feel, +in the beautiful way they shepherded me, that I +was a silly useless female and that they were grave +chivalrous young men; they watched over me with +just that matter-of-fact care.</p> + +<p>To me it was all wonderful, that experience. +To the girls, who do it every night, every alternate +fortnight, year in, year out, the thrill of it +has naturally gone long since; the wonder is that +to them all remains the pity of it. We swung out +of the park into the road. There was no moon, +the stars were mostly hidden by the heavy clouds, +the sleet blew in gusts against the wind screen. +We went at a good pace, bound for a Canadian +hospital, and then for a station beyond E——, +where the train was waiting, for this was what +is called an "evacuation" that I was going to see.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +No train of wounded was due in that night, and +the Convoy's business was to take men who were +being sent elsewhere from the hospitals to the +train.</p> + +<p>We stopped in front of a shadow hospital, set +in a town of shadow-huts, and a door opened to +show an oblong of orange light, and send a paler +shaft widening out into the night towards the sleek +side of our ambulance.</p> + +<p>We heard the men being placed in the ambulance, +the word was given, and again we set off +through the night, this time so slowly, so carefully, +for we carried that which must not be jarred one +hair's breadth more than could be helped. We +crept along the roads, past the pines that showed +as patches of denser blackness against the sky, +past the sand-dunes that glimmered ghostly, past +the blots of shadow made by every shrub and tree-trunk, +and behind and before us crawled other +ambulances, laden even as we.</p> + +<p>The station was wrapped in darkness, save for +a hanging light here and there, and an occasional +uncurtained window in the waiting train. We +drew up under a light, where a sergeant was waiting.</p> + +<p>"Four from No. 7 Canadian," said my driver +crisply. The sergeant repeated, looked at a list +he carried and marked our cases off it duly, then +told us the number of the compartment where we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +should stop. The ambulance slid on, very slowly, +beside the train and slowly came to rest.</p> + +<p>I could see into the white-painted interior of +the train, could see the shelves running along its +sides, and on the shelves, making oblong shapes +of darkness against all the white, men laid +straightly ... in front of us the Red Cross orderlies +were sliding men down on stretchers from +the shelves of an ambulance, slipping them out, +carrying them up into the train and packing them +on the shelves like fragile and precious parcels.</p> + +<p>And suddenly it seemed to me there was something +profoundly touching about the sight of a +man lying flat and helpless, shoved here and there, +in spite of all the care and kindness with which it +was accomplished. It is a thing wrong in essence, +it seems an outrage on Nature—I got an odd feeling +that there was something wrong and unnatural +about the mere posture of lying-down that I never +thought of before. The world seemed suddenly +to have become deformed, as a monster is deformed +who is born distorted. It shouldn't be +possible to slide men on to shelves like this....</p> + +<p>The girl at the wheel pushed back the little +shutter set in the front of the ambulance and we +looked into the dimly-lit interior. I could see the +crowns of four heads, the jut of brow beyond +them, the upward peak of the feet under the grey +blankets, pale hands, one pair thin as a child's, +that lay limply along the edge of the stretchers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<p>The orderlies came to the open door, one man +mounted within, and the top stretcher from one +side was slipped along its grooves and disappeared, +tilted into the night. The boy on the +top stretcher the other side turned his head languidly +and watched—I could see a pale cheek, +foreshortened from where I sat, a sweep of long +dark eyelashes, the curve of the drooping upper +lip. His turn came, and, passive, he too was slid +out, then the two men below were carried away +and up into the train. The ambulance was empty.</p> + +<p>We turned in a circle over the muddy yard and +started off again, stopping again by the sergeant +to get our orders.</p> + +<p>"Number 4," said the sergeant, and we swung, +once more at a good pace, along the heavy roads, +took fresh turnings about and about in the city +of hospital huts, and drew up at Number 4.</p> + +<p>Again we were loaded, and again we crept back +along the roads where we had a few minutes before +gone so swiftly, meeting empty cars, keeping +in line behind those laden like ourselves. Again +we slowed down by the waiting sergeant to say, +"Two stretchers and two sitters from Four." +He echoed us, and we crept on to the appointed +carriage and stopped. So it went on through +a couple of hours, ambulance after ambulance +swiftly leaving the station, slowly coming back, +all drawing up gently by the train, each, opened, +making a faint square of light in the velvet darkness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +And then, at last, when it was all over, the +return, swift again, towards the camp.</p> + +<p>We bumped along the road, the dim pines falling +away into the shadows behind, a very mild +funnel of light showing us a scrap of the way +before us and of hedge on either side, the twigs +of it perpetually springing out palely to die away +once more. The wind was behind us and the +screen clear; far ahead of us on the road was an +empty ambulance with its curtains drawn back, +bare but for its empty stretchers and dark blankets, +which made, in the pale glow of the white-painted +interior, a sinister Face—two hollow eyes +and a wide mouth—that fled through the night, +always keeping the same distance ahead, grimacing +at me, like an image of the Death's Head of +War.... I was glad when it swung round a +turning and was lost to us.</p> + +<p>We drove into the unrelieved darkness of the +convoy park and drew up with precision in our +place, I wrestled again with the flap, and we got +out into the wet sleet, half-snow, half-rain. My +driver covered up the bonnet with tarpaulin, +turned off the lights, and we went across to the +kitchen. It was half-past three, and we were the +first to come back; we asked for bowls of soup +and stood sipping them and munching sandwiches +that lay ready cut in piles upon the table.</p> + +<p>Then, one after another, the drivers entered +... pulling off their great gloves as they came,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +stamping the snow from their boots. They stood +about, drinking from their steaming bowls, bright-eyed, +apparently untired, throwing little quick +scraps of talk to each other—about the slowness +of "St. John's" on this particular night, who hadn't +their cases ready and kept one or two ambulances +"simply ages"; or the engine trouble developed +by one car which still kept it out somewhere on +the road. And I stood and listened and watched +them, and I received an impression of extraordinary +beauty.</p> + +<p>These girls, with their leather caps coming +down to their brows and over their ears, looked +like splendid young airmen, their clear, bold faces +coming out from between the leather flaps. They +were not pretty, they were touched with something +finer, some quality of radiance only increased by +their utter unconsciousness of it. Each girl, with +her clear face, her round, close head, her stamping +feet and strong, cold hands, seemed so intensely +alive within the dark globe of the night, +that her life was heightened to a point not earthly, +as though she were a visitant from the snows or +fields I had not seen, fields Olympian.... And +as each came swinging in—"<i>vera incessu patuit +dea</i>...."</p> + +<p>I could have wished them there for ever, like +some sculptured frieze, so lovely was the rightness +and the inspiration of it.</p> + +<p>But I went to my bed, and one of the goddesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +insisted on refilling my hot-water bag, though I +assured her it would be quite well as it was, and I +was unwound from my swaddling clothes and left +to dream.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>"AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER"</h3> + + +<p>Since the beginning of things women have been +mixed up in war, and it is only as the world has +become more civilised (if in view of the present +one can make that assertion) that their place in +it has been questioned. The whole question of +the civilian population has taken on a different +aspect since the outbreak of this war, owing to +the extraordinary and unprecedented penalties attached +to the civilian status by Germany, but the +sub-division labelled "Women" has perhaps undergone +more revision than any. It has undergone +so much revision, in fact, that women have, in +large masses, ceased to be civilians and are ranked +as the Army.</p> + +<p>If it be frankly conceded that it is as natural for +women to want to get to the war as men, one +clears the way for profitable discussion without +wasting time while the outworn epithets of "unwomanly" +and "sensation-hunters" are flung +through the air to the great obscuring thereof. +The delight in danger for its own sake is common +to all human beings, to the young as an intoxicant,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +to the old as a drug. It is not the least +of the tragedies of woman that this is a delight +in which she is so seldom able to indulge.</p> + +<p>When the war broke, everyone wanted to go and +see what it was like, and it is merely useless to +observe that this was treating it as a huge picnic. +Before the tightening-up process began, in the +wonderful days when the war was still fluid, it +was possible to get out to the front—the real +front—on all sorts of excuses. The tightening-up +was necessary, and all too slow, but let us not, +because of that, fall into the error of calling the +instinct which urged non-combatants "mere" curiosity, +as though that were not the greatest of the +gifts of the gods, without which nothing is done.</p> + +<p>Among these non-combatants who wanted to +see the war were many women, and if, mixed with +their patriotism and desire to help, went a streak +of that love of danger which is no disgrace to a +man—why, I maintain that it is no disgrace to a +woman either, but as natural an instinct as that +which drives one to a wayside orchard if one is +hungry.</p> + +<p>There is nothing sooner slaked, for the time +being, than this inherent love of danger. Men +who wanted the fun of it at the beginning of the +war are heartily sick of it now, though they +wouldn't be out of it for worlds. But most of the +women haven't been allowed enough danger to get +sick of it, and so, in patches of young women you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +meet working in France, the old craving still lifts +its head. I came across a delightful streak of it +at T——, the oldest big convoy in France.</p> + +<p>The garage, over which the girls live, for their +camp is still a-building, is set in the eye of the +cold winter winds on the top of a hill overlooking +the sea. It was snowing heavily as I drove up, +great fat flakes of snow that wove and interwove +in the air in the way that only snowflakes can, so +that sometimes they look as though they were +falling upwards. The long line of the wooden +garage showed dark in the background, in the +space before it the ambulances stood about, but +the girls were fox-trotting in couples all about +them, their big rubber boots shuffling up little +clouds of snow; on the head of one girl was +swathed a greenish-blue handkerchief, which +made a lovely note of colour against the swirling +whiteness.</p> + +<p>I was taken in through the garage, where two +drivers were painting their cars—for all painting +is done by the girls, sometimes with unexpected +effects, as on one car which I saw, where "Eve" +from the <i>Tatler</i> and her little dog were depicted +in front of the body—and up a flight of wooden +stairs with an out-of-doors landing on top, to +the cubicles, which opened off on either side of +the open-ended passage for the whole length of +the building. Here, in one of the little bedrooms +for two, we had a meal of cocoa and cake, known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +as the "elevener," for the obvious reason that it +is consumed at eleven every morning. It was all +quite different from my evening at the convoy at +E——, but equally stimulating.</p> + +<p>The great plaint of the girls was that they +weren't allowed nearer the fighting line, and I +heard a story of how, in the early days, two cars +had managed to get right through to Poperinghe, +when that town was the centre of the Boche's attentions, +by the simple expedient of the girl-drivers +turning up their coat collars, pulling their +peaked caps well down over their eyes, and just +going ahead. They had a lovely time in Poperinghe +and lunched under shell-fire, and when the +military, including the Staff, were sitting in cellars, +the "Chaufferettes" sallied forth and bought picture +post-cards.</p> + +<p>"It's a shame they won't let us go up to the +line now——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," put in another very seriously, as +though she were adding the last uncontrovertible +proof to the perfidy of the authorities—"They +let the sisters get shelled, so why shouldn't they +let us?"</p> + +<p>Isn't that a delightful spirit, and, I beg leave to +insist, a perfectly natural and proper one? Any +decent human being would like to be shelled—who +hasn't been shelled too much. It is like being in love—a +thing that ought to happen at least +once to everybody.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of my hostesses was a violinist and plays +at all the concerts for the wounded which take +place thereabouts. I asked her whether she didn't +find the work ruination to her fingers for the violin, +but all she said carelessly was that they had +been ruined for three years now, but it didn't +matter, as anyway she couldn't have practised +even if she had the time, since there were always +some girls trying to sleep.</p> + +<p>And what do the local French people think of +these young girls in their midst, who work like +men and are out in all weathers and drive the +soldiers wounded in the great common cause? +They are quite charming to them, and indeed, +when they first came, the French met them at +every station with bouquets of flowers, so that the +girls, pleased and embarrassed, English fashion, +had a triumphal progress. But there are some +of the French neighbours who think the life must +be very hard on the poor things, and when, a little +while ago, the Convoy organised a paper chase, +the popular belief was that the hares were escaping +from the rigours of life.... When the panting +hares asked wayfaring traps for a lift, it was +refused them, as, though the kindly drivers had +every sympathy with the projected escape, they +were not going to assist them to defy authority!</p> + +<p>The hardships which this Convoy had undergone +I did not hear about from them, but from +their Commandant. She told me of three weeks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +at the beginning of things, when there were no +fires, no hot water, except a little always simmering +for pouring into the radiators of the cars +when there came a night call—for the snow was +frozen on the ground all those three weeks and +the water in the jugs was ice. The girls didn't +talk about that because they were not interested +in it, but neither would they talk about one other +thing, though for a very different reason—and +that was of the time when, after the great German +gas attacks at Nieuport, they had to drive +the gassed men who came on the hospital trains.... +You can't get them now to describe what +that was like, nor would you have tried, warned +by the sudden change of voice in which they even +mentioned it.</p> + +<p>There was one point in which this Convoy +seemed to me to touch the extreme of abnegation +attained by the G.S.V.A.D.'s. I had seen much +earlier in my visit a G.S.V.A.D. Convoy, but have +not mentioned it because I saw it before I had +really grasped essentials, and it appeared to me +then just a plain Convoy, and as the bare facts +of it were not as spectacular as those relating to +the Fannies, I chose the latter to write about.</p> + +<p>The G.S.V.A.D.'s, as I have said, rank as privates, +and among them are workers of every kind—scrubbers, +cooks, dispensers, clerks, motor drivers. +This G.S.V.A.D. convoy which I had seen +was made up of girls who had exchanged from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +V.A.D. convoys, mostly from this very one at +T—— where I now was; and so they happened +to be all friends and all girls of gentle birth. But +when I saw their quarters—in a couple of tall +French houses that had been converted to the +purpose—I was very upset by the terrible fact that +the girls had to share bedrooms. In all the camps +I had seen since, both of Fannies and V.A.D.'s, +each girl had her own tiny room which she cherished +as her own soul—which, indeed, is what it +amounts to. And the Waac officers, of course, +have their own private rooms, though the girls +sleep in dormitories. This convoy at T—— was +the only voluntary one I had come across where +the inestimable privilege of solitude was missing, +though that will be put right when the new camp +is built.</p> + +<p>And here I may mention that, deeply as I admire +all the girls who are working so splendidly +in France, I think perhaps my meed of admiration +brims highest for those members of the G.S.V.A.D.'s +who are gently born, for this very reason +of the sleeping accommodation. Let us be frank, +and admit that for the generality of working girls, +such as the Waacs and a large proportion of the +G.S.V.A.D.'s, it is not nearly so great a hardship +to sleep in dormitories as it is for girls who +have, as a matter of course, always been accustomed +to privacy. It is not so bad in the case +of members of a G.S. convoy such as that I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +mentioned, where the girls are all friends, but +what of those ladies who live in the big camps +and sleep in long huts with other girls of every +class, all, doubtless, decent good girls, but, in the +nature of things, often girls with whom any ground +of meeting must be limited to the barest commonalities +of life? Also sometimes those in authority—those +who are and always were professionals, +not amateurs—have been known to use the power +given to them, by the inferior rating of these girls, +to make them rather miserable.</p> + +<p>Personally, I have long had a theory, which +will doubtless bring down on me howls of rage +from those who will say I am decrying the most +noble of professions, that women are not meant +to be nurses. It brings out all that is worst in +them. The love of routine for its own sake, that +deadly snare to which women and Government +officials succumb so much more easily than do men, +is fostered in them. And so is the love of authority +for their own sakes, which is almost worse. +It has taken nothing less than this way to show +what splendid creatures nurses are under their +starched aprons. In times of peace only amateur +women should be nurses; for it may be observed +that the V.A.D. nurses, though they have had +long enough to do it in, have not developed the +subtle disease of nursitis. Evidently nursing is +a thing, like love-making, which should never become +a profession.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + +<p>I was glad to have seen all the different convoys +I had, because no two had been to me alike, +and to each I am indebted for a differing expression +of the same vision, which is the vision splendid +of a duty undertaken gladly and sustained +with courage. From my first convoys—the Fannies +and the G.S.V.A.D.'s—I got the wonderful +facts of it, at the V.A.D. Convoy at E—— I +caught that side of it which I was most glad of +all to encounter, and at the V.A.D. Convoy at +T—— I found that delightful spirit of sheer joy +in danger which is too precious to be allowed to +die out of the world just because there happens +to be, at present, such a great deal too much danger +let loose upon it.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>REST</h3> + + +<p>The snow danced in a fine white mist over the +ploughed fields, and drove perpetually against the +northerly sides of the tall bare tree-trunks that +lined the way for miles, hardly finding a hold upon +the smooth flanks of the planes, but sinking into +the rough-barked limes till they looked dappled +with their brown ridges and the white veining, +and oddly as though covered with the pelt of some +strange animal. High in the web of bare branches, +the clumps of mistletoe showed as filigree nests +for some race of fairy birds.</p> + +<p>Gracious country this, for all the desolate whiteness; +it lay in great rolling slopes with drifts +of purplish elms in the folds, and on the levels +winding steel-dark streams along whose banks +the upward-springing willows burned an ardent +rust colour. And as the car rocked and bounded +along and the wind screen first starred in one +place, then in another, then fell out altogether, +one got a better and better view of it all.</p> + +<p>What a wonderful people the French are for +agriculture.... Hardly a man did I see all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +days I motored about and about, but I saw mile +after mile of cultivated land, the sombrely-clad +women or boys guiding the slow ploughs, the +rough-coated horses pulling patiently—white +horses that looked pale against the bare earth, +but a dark yellow when the snow came to show up +the tarnishing that the service of man brings +upon beasts. Several times I saw English soldiers +ploughing, and rejoiced.</p> + +<p>We came into the town that was our bourn +in the grey of the evening, passed the grey glimmer +of the river between its grey stone quays, +passed the grey miracle of the cathedral, and then, +in the rapidly deepening dusk, turned in through +great wrought iron gates into a grey courtyard.</p> + +<p>It may have been gathered that, much as I admire +both their practical perfection and their spiritual +significance, I am no lover of camps, which +seem to me among all things man-created upon +God's earth about the most depressing. I had +lived and moved and had my being in camps it +seemed to me for countless ages, the edges of my +soul were frayed with camps. From the moment +of walking into the old house at R—— a wonderful +sense of rest that brooded over the place enveloped +me. The thing had an atmosphere, impossible +to exaggerate, though very difficult to +convey, but I shall never forget the miracle that +house was to me.</p> + +<p>It was a Hostel for the Relations of Wounded,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +and there are in France at present some half-dozen +of these houses, supported by the Joint War +Committee of the Red Cross and the Order of +St. John, and staffed by V.A.D.'s. At all of them +the relations of badly wounded are lodged and +fed free of charge, while cars meet them and also +convey them to and from the hospital. This +much I knew as plain facts, what I had not been +prepared for was the breath of exquisite pleasure +that emanated from this house.</p> + +<p>The house was originally a butter market, and +the entrance room, set about with little tables +where the relations have their meals, has one side +entirely of glass; the lounge beyond, which is +for the staff, is glass-roofed, while that opening +on the right hand of the dining-place, the lounge +for the relations, has long windows all down the +side; so it will be seen that light and air are +abundant on the ground floor of the Hostel in +spite of the fact that it looks on to a courtyard.</p> + +<p>From the relations' lounge, with its slim vermilion +pillars ringed about with seats like those +round tree-trunks, there goes up a curving staircase +of red tiles, with a carved baluster of oak +greyish with age, a griffon sitting upright upon +the newel. Up this staircase I was taken to my +room, and there the completion of peace came +upon me.</p> + +<p>One could see at a glance it would be quiet, +beautifully quiet. Its window gave on to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +sloping grey flanks of pointed roofs and showed +a filigree spire pricking the pale bubble of the +wintry sky, its walls were panelled from floor to +ceiling, its hangings were of white and vermilion, +its floor dark and polished, and on the wide stone +hearth burned a wood fire. And, to crown all, +after tiny huts, it was so big a room that the corners +were filled with gracious shadow; and the +firelight flickered up and down on the panelling +and glimmered in the polished floor and set the +shadows quivering. I lay back in a vermilion-painted +chair and felt steeped in the bath of restfulness +that the place was.</p> + +<p>The whole house was very perfectly "got-up," +the maximum of effect having been attained with +the minimum of expense, though not of labour; +it all having been achieved under the direction of +a former superintendent with a genius for decoration, +who is now V.A.D. Area Commandant and +still lives at the Hostel. The evening I arrived +there, she and the staff were busy stenciling a buff +bedspread with blue galleons in full sail, varied +by gulls. Everything is exceedingly simple, there +is no fussy detail, nothing to catch dirt. The +walls are all panelled, and painted either ivory +or dark brown; the furniture is of wicker and +plain wood, painted in gay colours—rich blues +and vermilion; the tablecloths are of red or blue +checks. In the spacious bedrooms are simple colour +schemes—in one there are thick, straight curtains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +of flaming orange, in another of a deep blue, +in another of red and white checked material. +The floors are of polished wood or red tiles +strewn with rugs; vivid-coloured cushions lie in +the easy chairs; and set about in earthen jars are +great branches of mimosa and lilac from the +South, boughs of pussy-willow, the tender velvety +grey ovals blossoming into fragile yellow dust; +all along the sills are indoor window-boxes filled +with hyacinths of pink and white and a cold faint +blue.</p> + +<p>On the walls the only decoration is that of posters, +and these create an extraordinary effect as of +a series of windows, opening upon different climes +and strange worlds, windows set in ivory walls. +Here is an old Norman castle, grey against a sky +of luminous yellow, there a stream in Brittany +which you can almost hear brawling past the +plane-trees with their freckled trunks, while beyond +it, through another window, you see a pergola +of roses whose deep red has turned wine-coloured +under the moonlight, and beyond that again, the +white cliffs of England go down into a peacock +sea. And, in the Red Cross dining-room, a poilu, +his mouth open on a yell of encouragement, +charges with uplifted hands, looking over his +shoulder at you with bright daring eyes, and you +do not need the inscription underneath of "<i>On +les aura!</i>" to guess what spirit urges him.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the setting for one of the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +merciful of the works of the Red Cross. That it +is appreciated is shown by the fact that at Christmas, +at this house, with its staff of Superintendent, +cook, parlourmaid, housemaid and "tweeny," with +one chauffeuse, there were forty relations of +wounded staying. The average number of people +for whom Army and Red Cross rations are drawn +three times a week is twenty-five, but for these +rations as for fifteen are drawn, as the food supply +is too generously proportioned for a household +consisting so largely of women. But it will +be seen that with a constantly fluctuating population +the task of housekeeping is no easy one, +though it is tackled by the voluntary staff with +gaiety and courage.</p> + +<p>They have troubles of their own, too, the +members of that staff, and in the big kitchen, +where among the dishes on the table a pink hyacinth +bloomed, the fair-haired cook I saw so busily +working was back from a leave in England that +was to have been her marriage-leave, had not her +fiancé been killed the day before he was to join +her. Now she is amongst her pots and pans again +and smiling still, as I can testify. The "tweeny," +who also describes herself as a boot-boy, is a +young war-widow. Things like these are almost +beyond the admiration of mortals less severely +tested.</p> + +<p>The material difficulties are not the worst in a +hostel of this kind, which in its very nature presupposes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +grief. The relations, of course, are of +all kinds, after every pattern of humanity, and +each makes his or her emotional demand, if not +in active appeal to sympathy, yet in the strain that +it entails on the sensitively organised to see others +in sorrow—and unless you are sensitive you are +no good for work such as this. This hostel is +blessed in its Superintendent, an American V.A.D. +worker of a personality so <i>simpatica</i>—there is no +adequate English for what I mean—that you are +aware of it at first meeting with her; and she is a +woman of the world, which is not always the case +with women workers, however excellent.</p> + +<p>Shortly before I came to the Hostel a very +young wife arrived to see her husband, who +lay desperately ill in one of the hospitals. When +he died she became as a thing distraught and +could not be left, and the Superintendent even +had to have her to sleep in her room with her all +the time she was there. Others, again, are aloof +in their sorrow, though it is none the less tragic +for that. The first question on the lips of the +Staff when the chauffeuse comes back from taking +the relatives to the hospital is, "Was it good +news?"</p> + +<p>It was good news for the couple who arrived +on the same evening that I did, the mother and +father of a young officer who was very badly +injured. I saw them next morning in the lounge, +sitting quietly on either side of the centre-stove,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +a business man and his wife, as neat, he in his +serge suit, she in her satin blouse and carefully +folded lace and smooth grey hair, as if they had +not been travelling for a day and a night on end, +racked by anxiety, though you could see the deep +lines that the strain had left. He looked at me +with those patient eyes of the elderly which hold +the same unconscious pathos as those of animals, +and talked in a low quiet voice, and it seemed almost +an impertinence of a total stranger to assure +these gentle, dignified people of her gladness that +their only son was safe, yet how glad one is that +any one of these brief contacts in passing should +be of happiness! It is so impossible not to weep +with them that weep that it is a keen joy to be +able to rejoice with them that do rejoice.</p> + +<p>"It's so free here ..." he told me, "that's +what the wife and I like so. No rules and regulations, +you can do just what you like as though +you were in your own home ... no feeling that +as you don't pay you've got to do what you're +told." And there was expressed the spirit of the +Hostel as I discovered it.</p> + +<p>There are no rules, and it is always impressed +upon the Superintendents that the relations are +not obliged to go there, that they do so because +they choose to, and must be treated as honoured +guests. In the dining-room there are little tables +as at an hotel, so that the different parties can +keep to themselves if they prefer it; there are no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +times for going out or coming in, no times for +"lights out," no need to have a meal in if the +visitor mentions he is going out for it. The relations +who stay at these hostels are guests in every +sense of the word, and there is not one trace of +red tape or the faintest feeling of obligation about +the whole thing.</p> + +<p>And that must have been what I had felt in the +very air of the place when I arrived, what stole +with so precious a balm over me who had been +in camp after camp, institution after institution. +This place, with its quiet walls and its grey shutters +wing-wide upon its grey walls, was not only +beautiful and rich with that richness only age can +give, it was instinct as well with freedom and with +peace.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL QUESTION</h3> + + +<p>I have left till the last what to some people +will be the dullest and what is certainly the least +spectacular of all the work done by the women +in France, but what is to me perhaps the most +wonderful and admirable of all. I mean that of +the Domestic Staffs.</p> + +<p>For there is something thrilling about driving +wounded, something eternally picturesque about +nursing them, but there is no glamour about being +a general servant.... A general servant, year +in, year out, and with no wages at that, for I talk +of the voluntary staffs, girls of gentle birth and +breeding who deliberately undertake to wash +dishes and clean floors and empty slops day after +day. I think heroism can no higher go, and I +am not trying to be funny; I mean it.</p> + +<p>All the voluntary camps I had seen, all the +hostels, the rest stations, and many hospitals, are +staffed by voluntary domestic help; and the girls +they wait upon, the drivers and secretaries and +such like, are eager in recognition of them. But +that seems to me about all the recognition they do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +get; they get no "snappy pars," no photographs +in the picture papers, no songs are sung of them, +no reward is theirs in the shape of medal or ribbon, +nothing but the sense of a dish properly +cleaned or rugs duly swept under. I consider +that there ought to be a special medal for girls +who have slaved as general servants during the +war, without a thrill of romance to support them; +a "Skivvy's Ribbon" as one of them laughingly +suggested to me when I propounded the idea.</p> + +<p>Take, for example, the Headquarters of the +British Red Cross, at the Hotel Christol at Boulogne, +to which I returned on my homeward way, +as I had come to it on landing. The staff, counting +the Commissioner and officials, the clerks, typists, +secretaries, and Post Office girls, amount to +about a hundred and forty-five people, and the +house staff number seventeen and are all V.A.D.'s. +The Hotel Christol is also the headquarters for +all Red Cross people going on leave or arriving +therefrom via Boulogne, and all have to report +there; nearly all want a meal, many want a bed.</p> + +<p>The men-workers and many of the women, such +as V.A.D. Commandants, etc., live out in billets +in the town, but the manageress and her assistant, +the Post Office Commandant, the girl driver of +the mail-car with her orderly (these two girls +drive about sixty miles daily with the mails), the +girls of the telephone exchange and the rest of +the Post Office girls, all "live in," and in addition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +to the casual Red Cross workers who may appeal +for a bed any time there are the relations of +wounded who have been put up there whenever +possible, though now a hostel is being opened in +Boulogne for the purpose. All the people working +in the house and all Red Cross workers arriving +by boat are entitled to take their meals at the +Christol, as are all Red Cross workers in Boulogne, +both officers and privates, and the average +number of meals served is 2,500 a week. Four +or five girls act as waitresses in the dining-room, +and three are always in the pantry, which must +never be left for a moment during the day; so it +will be seen that the headquarters of the Red +Cross is a sort of hotel, except that nobody pays.</p> + +<p>There are French servants to do the roughest +work, but the girls have plenty to do without that. +The house staff begin work at seven in the morning; +at seven-thirty in the evening they start to +turn out the forty-two offices, which they sweep +and dust every day. They wash all the tea-things +(not the dinner-things), and clean all the silver +and glass, they make the beds and do all the waiting. +A pretty good list of occupations, is it not, +carried out on such a huge scale?</p> + +<p>The girls are well looked after, for it must not +be forgotten that some of them are not more than +eighteen, and their parents in England have a +right to demand that these children should be at +once guarded and cheered. No Red Cross girl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +is allowed out after half-past nine in a restaurant, +and none is ever allowed to dine out unaccompanied +by another girl. But when a friend of a girl +passes through Boulogne, then it is permitted that +she and another girl may go and dine with the +officer in question, always provided they are back +by nine-thirty. For superiors are merciful and +human creatures these days, and there is always +the thought that the girl may never see that friend +again. And Heaven—and the superior—knows +that these girls need and deserve a little relaxation +and enjoyment.</p> + +<p>And would you not think that to girls who work +as these do and behave so well would at least be +given the understanding and respect of all of us +who do so much less? Yet how often one hears +careless remarks of censure or—worse—of belittlement. +That to other nations our ways may +need explaining is understandable, but we should +indeed be ashamed that any amongst ourselves +fail in comprehension.</p> + +<p>What do the French think of our women? +That is a question that inevitably arises in the +mind of anyone who knows the differences in +French and English education. Let me show the +thing as I think it is, by means of a metaphor.</p> + +<p>It is universally conceded that marriage is a +more difficult proposition than friendship, that it +is more a test of affection to live under one roof +and share the daily commonplaces of life than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +it is to meet occasionally when one can make a +feast of the meeting. Yet this is not to say that +marriage is the less admirable state, but only to +allow that it is one requiring greater sacrifices, +greater tact, and—greater affection. Therefore, +when it is admitted that the presence in France for +nearly four years of English soldiers, English +civilians on war-work, and the consequent erection +of whole temporary townships for their accommodation, +is a greater test—if you will a greater +strain—for the Entente than if intercourse had +been limited to an occasional interchange of a +handful of people, one is not saying anything derogatory +either to French hosts or English guests, +but merely frankly conceding that more depth of +affection and understanding is necessary than +would otherwise have been the case. To superficial +relationships, superficial knowledge, but to +the big partnerships of life, complete understanding. +And, if that is never quite possible in this +world, at least let the corner where knowledge +cannot come be filled by tolerance.</p> + +<p>England is no longer on terms of mere friendly +intercourse with France; the bond is deeper, more +indissoluble.... And as in marriage the closest +bond of all is the birth of children, so in this +pact of nations the greatest bond is the loss of +children—lost for the same cause upon the same +soil....</p> + +<p>With a bond as deep as this—a bond always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +acknowledged and given its meed of recognition +by the most thoughtful brains and sensitive hearts—yet, +as in marriage, there are bound to be minor +irritations, points, not of meeting, but of conflict. +Trifles, indeed, these points, compared with +the magnitude of the bond which unites, but nevertheless +trifles which would be better adjusted than +ignored.</p> + +<p>In the first place, we must recognise that though +the things which unite us, our common ideals, our +common needs, are far stronger than any difference +in our modes of thought, yet those differences +exist, and that, in marriage, it is often said +that it is the little things which count.... Heaven +forbid that we should so lose sense of proportion +as to say it when the matter in hand is the +marriage of nations, but nevertheless it is well not +entirely to forget it.... And, of all the differences +in customs between us, there is probably +none more marked than in our way of treating +what is known—loosely and with considerable +banality—as the "sex-problem." This is not the +place to discuss those differences, though, as one +who has known and loved France all her life, I +may mention that, personally, I see much to admire +in the French system and could wish that +we emulated it, but that is neither here nor there +at the moment.</p> + +<p>France has probably evolved for the happiness +and welfare of her womenkind the sort of life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +which suits best with their temperament and circumstances. +Women, like water, find their own +level, and no one who knows France, and knows +the devotion, the business capacity, and the good +works of her women, imagines them to be the butterfly +creatures that English fancy used to paint +them twenty or thirty years ago. As a matter of +fact, the present writer had occasion, two winters +ago, to make a close study of the varied scope of +women's work in France—the hospitals for training +of <i>femmes du monde</i>, the schools like Le +Foyer, for the training of young girls of the upper +classes to help their poorer sisters, etc., etc., all +works carried on unostentatiously long before the +war broke upon us and proved their usefulness. +The "butterfly" Frenchwoman underwent, before +the war, a far more serious social training than +did the happy-go-lucky English girl, and was better +equipped in consequence, with a knowledge of +economic conditions, than the untrained Englishwoman +could be.</p> + +<p>But we too have our quality, and I rather think +it is to be found in the greater freedom which we +are allowed. We were not so well trained, but +freedom stepped into the place of custom, and +gave the necessary attitude of mind—that unprejudiced, +untrammelled attitude which is essential +to the quick grasping of a fresh <i>métier</i>. That is +where our method—or, if you prefer it, our lack +of method—helped us, even as their training<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +helped the French. And the French, with their +extraordinary facility of vision, do, I think, understand +that we have simply pushed our freedom +to its logical and legitimate outcome, that we could +not be expected, after being accustomed, for many +years past, to be on terms of simple easy friendship +with men as with our own sex, above all, after +working side by side with them since this war began, +we could not be expected to say that we could +not work with them in France, though we could +in England, or that perhaps this girl would, and +that girl couldn't....</p> + +<p>We naturally proceeded to act <i>en masse</i> as we +had acted individually, to do on a large scale +what had been done on a small, to manipulate +great bodies of women where before a few friends +had worked together. In every large body of persons +there are bound to be one or two individuals +who fail to come up to the required standard, but +that does not alter the principle that what can +safely be done in small quantities can safely be +done in large, provided the conditions are altered +to scale.</p> + +<p>And that is what we are doing, and what our +Government is helping us to do; that is what our +Women's Army and our voluntary workers in +France are—the expression, on a large scale, of +what bands of women have been doing so successfully +on a small scale since the beginning of +the war—helping, and even replacing the men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +And just as, with our peculiar training and mode +of thought, it is possible for the average Englishwoman +to eliminate sex as a factor in the scheme +of things, so it is possible to eliminate it in greater +masses. In other words, it is perfectly possible, +to men and girls brought up with the English +method of free friendly intercourse, to work side +by side, to meet, to walk together, and to remain—merely +friends. Whether that is a good thing +or not is another point altogether, as it is whether +it makes for charm in a woman.... Certainly +no woman in this world competes with a Frenchwoman +for charm. It is as recognised as an Englishwoman's +complexion—and considerably more +lasting!</p> + +<p>Probably it is only ourselves and the Americans +among the races of the world who could have +instituted such an experiment as that of our Women's +Army, but there is among the nations one +which is supreme in "flair," in sympathy, and a +certain ability to comprehend intellectually what +it might not understand emotionally, and that nation +is France.</p> + +<p>I am confident that it will never have to be said +that when Englishwomen sacrificed so much—and +to a Frenchwoman one does not need to point +out what a sacrifice it is when a woman risks youth +and looks in hard unceasing work—that Frenchwomen +failed to understand them or to attribute +motives to them other than those that have animated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +themselves in their own labours throughout +the war.</p> + +<p>That it must sometimes look odd to them one +knows so well; how can it be otherwise? They +see the girls, khaki-clad, out walking without +"Tommies," hear the sounds of music and dancing +coming from the recreation huts, where the +girls are allowed to invite the men, and <i>vice versa</i>. +Yet, if you investigate, you will find out that they +are of an extraordinary simplicity, these girls and +men, in their intercourse, in their earnest dancing, +taught them by instructors from our Young Men's +Christian Association, inspired by nothing more +heady than lemonade, and chaperoned by the +women-officers, who have attained a mixture of +authority and motherly supervision over every individual +girl that reminds me of nothing so much +as the care, born of a sort of divine cunning, of a +very dear and clever Mother Superior at a convent +I once stayed at in France. For the interesting +point for both the French and ourselves to +note is that in the treatment of our Women's +Army in France we have taken a leaf out of their +book. We look after the girls with something +of that love and care which surrounds a girl in +France.</p> + +<p>For many of the Women's Army are working +girls, who have never been guarded in their lives, +whose parents had probably, after the lower-class +English way, very little influence with them, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +who, though good, honest, rough girls, were free +to roam the streets of their native towns with +their friends every evening once their work was +over. Now, for what is for many of them the +first time in their lives, they are being watched +and guarded in a manner that is more French +than English, and which I find admirable. As for +their walks, their friendships with men, the personal +observation of the acute French will show +them that it is merely our Anglo-Saxon way, and +the official statistics will prove to any doubters +how well both the girls and the men can be trusted +to behave themselves. We are a cold nation if +you like, but there it is—it has its excellences, +if not its charms.</p> + +<p>So much for fundamental differences, which, +when intelligence and sympathy go out to meet +them, become merely points on which temperaments +agree to differ amicably, each giving its +meed of admiration to the other. And for minor +matters, little things of different customs only, +that nevertheless, occasionally, in the strain of +this war, ruffle even friends, I would say something +like this, which is in the hearts of us all....</p> + +<p>France—dear lovely France, to so many of us +adored for many years, who has stood to us for +the romance of the world, we know that in many +things our ways are not your ways and never will +be, nor would we wish it otherwise. To each nation +her distinctiveness, or she loses her soul.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +But, when those ways of ours seem to you most +alien, say to yourself: "This is only England's +differing way of doing what we are doing, of fighting +for what we are fighting for—the saving of +the right to individualism, the right to be different...." +To gain that we are all having to become +alike, just as to win freedom we are having +for a time to give it up, and the great thing to remember +is that this terrible coherent community +life is being borne with only that eventually we +may all be free men once more. Let us, for all +time, differ in our own ways, rather than agree +in the German! But also let us, while differing, +understand.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>NOTES AND QUERIES</h3> + + +<p>On my last evening I sat and thought about +the girls I had seen and known, in greater and less +degrees, in passing. And I saw them, not as unthinking +"sporting" young things, who were having +a great adventure, but as girls who were +steadily sticking to their jobs, often without enjoyment +save that of knowledge of good work +well done. And I thought of those prophets who +gloomily foretell that the women will never want +to drop into the background again—forgetful +of the fact that where a woman is is never a background +to herself. I smiled as I thought of the +eagerness with which these hard workers in mud +and snow and heat will start buying pretty clothes +again and going out to parties ... and I was +very thankful to know how unchangedly woman +they had all remained, in spite of the fact that they +had had the strength to lay the privileges and the +fun of being a woman aside for a time.</p> + +<p>I remembered what the D. of T. had said to +me when we discussed the question of how the +girls would settle down when it was all over, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +how he had thought that even if they did not +marry all would be well, because they would have +had their adventure.... I remembered too how +that had seemed to me the correct answer at the +time. Then later, when that awful web of depression +caught me, and the horror of the school-girl +conditions of life and all the apparent +"brightness" had choked me, I had all the more +thought it true, but marvelled; later still, when +I caught glimpses of that wonderful spirit and +that deep sophistication which had so cheered me, +I reversed the whole judgment and thought there +was nothing in it.</p> + +<p>Now, thinking it all over, it seemed to me that +somewhere midway lay Truth. These girls have +had, in a certain sense, their adventure, but when +it is all over, they will have a reaction from it, +and I believe that reaction will be pleasant to +them, that it will be the reaction, and not the +memory of adventure, which will content them. +It is certain that to anyone who has worked as +these girls work a considerable period of doing +nothing in particular will be very acceptable. +They will all have to become themselves again, +which will be interesting....</p> + +<p>Dear, wonderful girls ... you who wash +dishes and scrub and sweep, you girls of the +Women's Army who replace men and who do it +so thoroughly, you drivers who are out in all +weathers, night and day, sometimes for a week<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +or more on end, who face hardships such as +were faced in those three weeks at T—— when +there were no fires and no water, how glad I +am to have met you.... So I sat and thought, +and then I picked up a copy of <i>The Times</i> which +had just come over. And in the "Personal" column +this caught my eye:</p> + +<p>"Lady wants war-work, preferably motor-driving, +from three to five p.m."</p> + +<p>And I saw that it was not only those far removed +from the war who misunderstood both what +it demands and that which has arisen to meet +those demands.</p> + +<p>Do we not nearly all fail to realise the magnitude +and import of what is being done by these +unspectacular workers behind the lines, who are +yet part of war itself, and daily and nightly +strengthen the hands of the fighters? Some of us +in England realise as little as you in far-off countries, +and yet it should be our business to know, +because the least we can do is to understand so +that we, in our much less fine way, can help them +a little, one tithe of the amount they help our +fighting men.</p> + +<p>Not because of any desire of theirs for praise +is it necessary—I never saw a healthier disregard, +amounting to a kindly contempt, for what those +at home think or don't think, than among the +women working in France—but because it is only +by knowing that we can respond generously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +enough to the needs of their work, and only by +understanding that we can save our own souls +from that fat and contented ignorance which induces +a sleep uncommonly like death.</p> + +<p>Nor, as long as we listen to the girls themselves, +are we in any danger of thinking too much of them +or of their work. Not a woman I met, English or +American, working in France, but said something +like this, and meant it: "What, after all, is anything +we can do, except inasmuch as it may help +the men a little? How could we bear to do nothing +when the men are doing the most wonderful +thing that has ever been done in the world?"</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h2>THE END</h2> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Note:</h3> <p>Punctuation has been normalised.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sword of Deborah, by F. 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Tennyson Jesse + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sword of Deborah + First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France + +Author: F. Tennyson Jesse + +Release Date: October 25, 2010 [EBook #33906] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SWORD OF DEBORAH *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Neufeld, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + + F. TENNYSON JESSE + + + + + "Women are timid, cower and shrink + At show of danger, some folk think; + But men there are who for their lives + Dare not so far asperse their wives. + We let that pass--so much is clear, + Though little dangers they may fear, + When greater dangers men environ, + Then women show a front of iron; + And, gentle in their manner, they + Do bold things in a quiet way." + + THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH. + +[Illustration: A "FANY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO DROPPED INTO THE CAMP] + + + + + THE SWORD + OF DEBORAH + + _FIRST-HAND IMPRESSIONS OF THE + BRITISH WOMEN'S ARMY IN FRANCE_ + + BY + F. TENNYSON JESSE + AUTHOR OF "SECRET BREAD," "THE MILKY WAY," ETC. + + NEW [Illustration] YORK + + GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + _Copyright, 1919, + By George H. Doran Company_ + + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This little book was written at the request of the Ministry of +Information in March of 1918; it was only released for publication--in +spite of the need for haste in its compiling which had been impressed on +me, and with which I had complied--shortly before Christmas. Hence it +may seem somewhat after the fair. But it appears to me that people +should still be told about the workers of the war and what they did, +even now when we are all struggling back into our chiffons--perhaps more +now than ever. For we should not forget, and how should we remember if +we have never known? + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I A.B.C. 13 + + II THE FEVER CHART OF WAR 17 + + III BACKGROUNDS 26 + + IV MY FIRST CONVOY 34 + + V OUTPOSTS 41 + + VI WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES 48 + + VII THE BROWN GRAVES 58 + + VIII VIGNETTES 65 + + IX EVENING 74 + + X NIGHT 84 + + XI "AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER" 93 + + XII REST 102 + + XIII GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL + QUESTION 111 + + XIV NOTES AND QUERIES 123 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + A "FANNY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO + DROPPED INTO THE CAMP _Frontispiece_ + + H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A VAD DOMESTIC + STAFF 48 + + A VAD MOTOR CONVOY 48 + + WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY 48 + + WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN 48 + + WAACS IN THE BAKERY 80 + + WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES 80 + + WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SAND BAGS 80 + + + + + THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + +"_Thou art an Amazon, and fightest with the sword of Deborah._" + --1 HENRY VI. 1. ii. + + + + +THE SWORD OF DEBORAH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A.B.C. + + +This world of initials ... in which the members of the British +Expeditionary Force live and move--it is a bewildering place for the +outsider. Particularly to one who, like the writer, has never been able +to think in initials, any more than in dates or figures. The members of +the B.E.F.--and that at least is a set of letters that conveys something +to all of us--not only live amidst initials, but are themselves embodied +initials. To them the string of letters they reel off is no meaningless +form, no mere abracadabra to impress the supplicant, but each is a +living thing, coloured, definitely patterned, standing for something in +flesh and blood, or stone and mortar; something concrete and present to +the mind's eye at the mere mention. + +Just as, to anyone who does not know New York, it seems as though all +the streets must sound exactly alike, being merely numbered, while, to +anyone who knows them, the words East Sixty First, say, are as distinct +from East Twenty First, distinct with a whole vivid personality of their +own, as Half Moon Street from Threadneedle Street--so, to the initiate +in the game, the letters so lightly rattled off to designate this or +that official or institution stand for vivid, real, colourable things. + +But at first one is reminded forcibly of that scene in "Anna Karenina" +where Levin proposes to Kitty for the second time by means of writing in +chalk on a table the letters "W, y, t, m, i, c, n, b, d, t, m, n, o, t," +and Kitty, with great intelligence, guesses that they mean "When you +told me it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" Kitty, if you +remember, replies in initials at almost equal length, and Levin displays +an intelligence equal to hers. I had always found that scene hard of +credence, but I have come to the conclusion that Levin and Kitty would +have been invaluable at H.Q.B.R.C.S., A.P.O. 3, B.E.F. + +And the fog of initials is symbolic in a double manner; for not only do +the initials stand for what they represent to those who know, but in +their very lack of meaning for those who do not, they typify with a +peculiar aptness the fact that after all we at home in England, +particularly we ladies of England who live at home in ease, know very +little indeed of even what the letters B.E.F. stand for. We have hazy +ideas on the subject. Vaguely we know, for instance, that there are +women, lots of women, working out in France, though quite at what, +beyond nursing, we don't seem to know. Motor drivers ... of course, yes, +we have heard of them. There is a vague impression that they are having +the time of their lives, probably being quite useful too ... but of the +technique of the thing, so to speak, what do we know? About as much as +we know when we first hear the clouds of initials rattling like shrapnel +about our heads if we go over to France. + +And if we at home know so little, how can other countries know, who have +no inner working knowledge of English temperaments and training to go +upon as a rough guide to at least the probable trend of things? How can +we expect them to know? And yet knowledge of what every section of the +working community is doing was never so vital as at the present moment, +because never before has so much of the world been working together on +the same job--and the biggest job in history. + +It is always a good thing to know what other folk are doing, even when +they are not your sort, and what they are doing does not affect you, +because it teaches proportion and widens vision--how much more +important, then, when what they are doing is what you are doing too, or +what you may yet come to do? + +Gentle reader--and even more especially ungentle reader--if in these +pages I occasionally ask you to listen to my own personal confession +both of faith and of unfaith--please realise that it is not because I +imagine there is any particular interest in my way of seeing things, but +simply because it is only so that I can make you see them too. You are +looking through my window, that is all, and it is not even a window that +I opened for myself, but that had to be opened for me. If you will +realise that I went and saw all I did see, not as myself, but as you, it +will give you the idea I am wishful to convey to you. Anything I feel is +only valuable because my feeling of it may mean your feeling of it too. +Therefore, when you read "I" in these pages, don't say "Here's this +person talking of herself again ..." say "Here am I, myself. This person +only saw these things so that I should see them." + +If you don't it will be nine-tenths my fault and one-tenth your own. + +Just as all the apparently endless combinations of initials in France +are symbols of living realities to those who understand them, and of +their ignorance to those who don't just as the very heading of "A.B.C." +which I have given this chapter typifies both those combinations of +initials and the fact that you and I are beginning at the very +beginning--for no one could have been more blankly ignorant than I when +I went over to France--so the letter "I" whenever it occurs in this book +is a symbol for You. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FEVER CHART OF WAR + + +"The women are splendid...." How tired we are of hearing that, so tired +that we begin to doubt it, and the least hostile emotion that it evokes +is the sense that after all the men are so much more splendid, so far +beyond praise, that the less one says of anyone else the better. That +sentence is dead, let us hope, fallen into the same limbo as "Business +as Usual" and the rest of the early war-gags, but the prejudices it +aroused, the feeling of boredom, have not all died with it. Words have +at least this in common with men, that the evil that they do lives after +them. + +Let me admit that when those in authority sent for me to go to France +and see what certain sections of the women there were doing, I didn't +want to go. I told them rather ungraciously that if they wanted the +"sunny-haired-lassies-in-khaki-touch" they had better send somebody +else. I am not, and never have been, a feminist or any other sort of an +'ist, never having been able to divide humanity into two different +classes labelled "men" and "women." Also, to tell the truth, the idea +of going so far behind the lines did not appeal. For this there is the +excuse that in England one grows so sick of the people who talk of +"going to the Front" when they mean going to some safe chateau as a base +for a personally conducted tour, or--Conscientious objectors are the +worst sinners in this latter class--when they are going to sit at +canteens or paint huts a hundred miles or so behind the last line of +trenches. The reaction from this sort of thing is very apt to make one +say: "Oh, France? There's no more in being in France behind the lines +than in working in England." A point of view in which I was utterly and +completely wrong. There is a great deal of difference, not in any +increased danger, but in quite other ways, as I shall show in the place +and order in which it was gradually made apparent to me. + +Also, no one who has not been at the war knows the hideous boredom of it +... a boredom that the soul dreads like a fatal miasma. And if I had +felt it in Belgium in those terrible grey first weeks of her pain, when +at least one was in the midst of war, as it was then, still fluid and +mobile, still full of alarums and excursions, with all the suffering and +death immediately under one's eyes still a new thing; if I had felt it +again, even more strongly, when I went right up to the very back of the +front in the French war zone for the Croix Rouge, in those poor little +hospitals where the stretchers are always ready in the wards to hustle +the wounded away, and where, in devastated land only lately vacated by +the Germans, I sat and ate with peasants who were painfully and sadly +beginning to return to their ruined homes and cultivate again a soil +that might have been expected to redden the ploughshare, how much the +more then might I dread it, caught in the web of Lines of +Communication.... I feared that boredom. + +And there was another reason, both for my disinclination and my lack of +interest. We in England grew so tired, in the early days of the war, of +the fancy uniforms that burst out upon women. Every other girl one met +had an attack of khaki-itis, was spotted as the pard with badges and +striped as the zebra. Almost simultaneously with this eruption came, for +the other section of the feminine community, reaction from it. We others +became rather self-consciously proud of our femininity, of being +"fluffy"--in much the same way that anti-suffragists used to be fluffy +when they said they preferred to influence a man's vote, and that they +thought more was done by charm.... + +With official recognition of bodies such as the V.A.D.'s and the even +more epoch-making official founding of the W.A.A.C.'s, the point of view +of the un-uniformed changed. The thing was no longer a game at which +women were making silly asses of themselves and pretending to be men; it +had become regular, ordered, disciplined and worthy of respect. In +short, uniform was no longer fancy dress. + +But the feeling of boredom that had been engendered stayed on, as these +things do. It is yet to be found, partly because there still are women +who have their photographs taken in a new uniform every week, but more +because of our ignorance as to what the real workers are doing. And like +most ignorant people, I was happy in my ignorance. + +Well, I went, and am most thankful for my prejudice, my disinclination, +my prevision of boredom. For without all those, what would my conversion +be worth? Who, already convinced of religion, is amazed at attaining +salvation? It is to the mocker that the miracle is a miracle, and no +mere expected sequence of nature, divine or human. + +I was often depressed, the wherefore of which you will see, but bored, +never. Thrilled, ashamed for oneself that one does so little--admiring, +critical, amused, depressed, elated, all this gamut and its gradations +were touched, but the string of boredom, never. And the only thing that +worries anyone sent on such a quest as mine, and with the inevitable +message to deliver at the end of it, is that terrible feeling that no +matter how really one feels enthusiasm, how genuine one's conversion, +there will always be the murmur of--"Oh, yes.... Of course she has to +say all that ... it's all part of the propaganda. She was sent to do it +and she has to do it, whether she really believes in it or not...." + +What can one say? I can only tell you, O Superior Person, that no matter +what I had been sent to do and told to write I not only wouldn't but +couldn't have, unless I meant it. I can only tell you so, I can't make +you believe it. But let me also assure you that I too am--or shall I say +was?--Superior, that I too have laughed the laugh of sophistication at +enthusiasm, that I too know enough to consider vehemence amusing and +strenuous effort ill-bred, that doubtless I shall do so again. But there +is one thing that seems to me more ill-bred, and that is lack of +appreciation of those who are doing better than oneself. + +Lest you should misunderstand me when I say that I didn't want to go to +France this time, and feared boredom, and felt no particular interest in +the work of the women over there, let me add that I was careful to +sponge my mind free of all preconceived notions, either for or against, +when once it was settled that I should go. I went without enthusiasm, it +is true, but at least I went with a mind rigorously swept and garnished, +so that there might enter into it visitants of either kind, angelic or +otherwise. + +For this has always seemed to me in common honesty a necessary part of +equipment to anyone going on a special mission, charged with finding +out things as they are--to be free not only of prejudice against, but +predisposition for; and just as a juryman, when he is empanelled, should +try and sweep his mind bare of everything he has heard about the case +before, so should the Special Missioner--to coin a most horrible +phrase--make his mind at once blank and sensitised, like a photographic +plate, for events to strike as truly as they may, with as little help or +hindrance from former knowledge as possible. + +Human nature being what it is, it is probably almost impossible for the +original attitude to be completely erased, however conscientious one is, +and that is why I am glad that my former attitude was, if not inimical, +at least very unenthusiastic, so that I am clear of the charge of seeing +things as I or the authorities might have wished me to see them. + +And, for the first few days, as always when the mind is plunged headlong +into a new world, though I saw facts, listened to them, was impressed, +very impressed, by their outward show, it still remained outward show, +the soul that informed the whole evaded me, and for many days I saw +things that I only understood later in view of subsequent knowledge, +when I could look back and see more clearly with the mind's eye what I +before had seen with the physical. Yet even the first evening I saw +something which, though only dimly, showed me a hint of the spirit of +the whole. + +I was at the Headquarters of the British Red Cross--which is what the +letters H.Q.B.R.C.S. stand for--and I was being shown some very peculiar +and wonderful charts. They are secret charts, the figures on which, if a +man is shown them, he must never disclose, and those figures, when you +read them, bring a contraction at once of pity and of pride to the +heart. For, on these great charts, that are mapped out into squares and +look exactly like temperature charts at a hospital, are drawn curves, +like the curves that show the fever of a patient. Up in jagged +mountains, down into merciful valleys, goes the line, and at every point +there is a number, and that number is the number of the wounded who were +brought down from the trenches on such a day. Here, on these charts, is +a complete record, in curves, of the rate of the war. Every peak is an +offensive, every valley a comparative lull. + +Sheet after sheet, all with those carefully-drawn numbered curves +zigzagging across them, all showing the very temperature of War.... + +With this difference--that on these sheets there is no "normal." War is +abnormal, and there is not a point of these charts where, when the line +touches it, you can say--"It is well." + +As I looked at these records I began to get a different vision of that +tract of country called "Lines of Communication" which I had come to +see. This, where War's very pulse was noted day by day, was the +stronghold of War himself. Here he is nursed, rested, fed with food for +the mouths of flesh and blood, and food for the mouths of iron; here, +the whole time, night and day, as ceaselessly as in the trenches, the +work goes on, the work of strengthening his hands, and so every man and +woman working for that end in "L. of C." is fighting on our side most +surely. Something of the hugeness and the importance of it began to show +itself. + +And, as regards that particular portion which I had come out to see, I +began to get a glimmering of that also, when it was told me, that of +those thousands of wounded I saw marked on the charts, a great +proportion was convoyed entirely by women. There are whole districts, +such as the Calais district, which includes many towns and stations, +where every ambulance running is driven by a woman. Not only the fever +rate of War is shown on those charts, but just as to the seeing eye, +behind any temperature-chart in a hospital, is the whole construction of +the great scheme--doctors, surgeons, nurses, food, drugs, money, +devotion, everything that finds its expression in that simple sheet of +paper filled in daily as a matter of routine, so behind these charts of +War's temperature kept at H.Q. is the whole of the complex organisation +known as the British Red Cross. And outstanding even amongst so much +that is splendid are certain bands of girls behind the lines, who, not +for a month or two, but year in, year out, during nights and days when +they have known no rest, have they, also, had their fingers on the pulse +of war. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BACKGROUNDS + + +At H.Q.B.R.C.S. the D. of T. told me the first things for me to see were +the F.A.N.Y.'s and the G.S.V.A.D.'s. That is the sort of sentence that +was shot at me on my first day. I have told you what H.Q.B.R.C.S. means; +the D. of T. means Director of Transport; the F.A.N.Y. is the First Aid +Nursing Yeomanry, and the G.S.V.A.D. is the General Service Voluntary +Aid Detachment. Now the V.A.D. I had heard of, and of its members, +always called V.A.D.'s, but G.S.V.A.D. was something new to me. Yet the +importance of the distinction, I soon learned, was great. + +Four sets of initials represented my chief objectives in France, the +F.A.N.Y.'s, the V.A.D.'s, the G.S.V.A.D.'s, and the W.A.A.C.'s. Of these +the former are known as the Fannies, and the last named as the Waacs, +owing to the tendency of the eye to make out of any possible combination +of letters a word that appeals to the ear. Of these four bodies, the +Fannies and the V.A.D.'s were in existence before the war, being amongst +those who listened to the voice of Lord Roberts crying in the +wilderness. They are all unpaid, voluntary workers, and they rank +officially as officers. Among themselves, of course, they have their own +officers, but socially, so to speak, every Fanny and V.A.D. is ranked +with the officers of the Army. But with the G.S.V.A.D.'s and the Waacs +it is not so. They are paid, and are to replace men; G.S.V.A.D.'s work +in motor convoys and at the hospitals, as cooks, dispensers, clerks, +etc., and the Waacs work for the combatant service. Except for their +officers, who rank with officers of the Army, the members of these two +bodies are considered as privates. + +And as both the Fannies and the Waacs go in khaki, and both the V.A.D.'s +and the G.S.V.A.D.'s in dark blue, it will be seen that confusion is +very easy to the uninitiate. That is my only excuse for perpetrating the +worst blunder that has probably ever been committed in France. Taken to +tea at a Fanny convoy I committed the unspeakable sin of asking whether +they were Waacs.... + +They were very kind to me about it, but when I eventually grasped the +system, I saw it was as though I had asked a Brass Hat whether he +belonged to the Salvation Army. Yet when I told the sad tale of my +_gaffe_ to the members of a V.A.D. convoy, they only seemed to think it +must have been quite good for the Fannies ... but somehow it wasn't +equally good for them when I timidly asked whether they were +G.S.V.A.D.'s ... though they were also very kind to me about it. + +The D. of T. motored me over to the Fannies' convoy, on a pale day of +difficult sunlight. Is there anywhere in the world, I wondered, more +depressing--more morbid--landscape, than that round Calais? It weighs on +the soul as a fog upon the senses, and it seemed to me that only people +of such a tenacious gaiety as the French or such an independence from +environment as the British could survive there for long. I have seen +country far flatter that was yet more wholesome, and I loathe flat +country. There is something in the perpetual repetition of form in the +country round Calais, the endless sameness of its differences, that is +peculiarly oppressive. Pearly skies blotted with paler clouds, endless +rows of bare poplars, like the skeletons of dead flames, yellowish roads +unwinding for ever, acres of unbroken and sickly green, of new-turned +earth of an equally sad brown ... and over all the trail of war, whose +footprint is desolation. The occupation even of an army of defence means +camp after camp; tin huts, wooden huts, zinc roofs; hospitals; barbed +wire; mud. And, amidst all this, and the sudden reminders of more active +warfare in houses crumpled to a scatter of rubble by a bomb, there are +people working, year in, year out, undismayed by the sordid litter of +it.... + +The saving of it all to the newcomer, though even that must pall on +anyone too accustomed, is that, like Pater's Monna Lisa, upon this part +of France "the ends of the world are come" ... (and who shall wonder if +in consequence "her eyelids are a little weary"?). Inscrutable Chinamen, +silent as shadows, flashing their sudden smiles, even more mysterious +than their immobility, turned from their labour to watch the passing of +the car; Kaffirs from South Africa, each with a white man's vote, +voluntarily enlisted for the Empire, swung along; vividly dark +Portuguese, clad in grey, came down to their rest camps; Belgians +trotted past with their little tassels bobbing from their jaunty caps. +And, in great droves along the roads, or, sometimes, more solitary in +the fields, the German prisoners stood at gaze, their English escort +shepherding. + +The first time my companion told me we were coming on German prisoners, +I shut my eyes, determined to open them unprejudiced, with a vision +clear of all preconceptions; really, at the bottom of my heart, +expecting that I should find them extraordinarily like anyone else.... +But they were not. They were all so like each other, that by the time +you had seen several hundreds you were still wondering confusedly +whether they were all relations ... even my Western eye detected more +difference between the types of Chinamen I met upon the road than in +these Teutons. Of course, the round brimless cap has something to do +with it, as has the close hair-crop, but when all is said, how much of a +type they are, how amazingly so, as though they had all been bred to one +purpose through generations! The outstanding ear, placed very low on the +wide neck, the great development of cheekbones and of the jaw on a level +with the ears, and then the sudden narrowing at the short chin ... and +the florid bulkiness of them. A detachment of _poilus_ swung past in +their horizon blue, and what a different type was flashed up against +that background of square jowls, what a thin, nervous, wiry type, all +animation.... + +The Germans were so exactly like all the photographs of prisoners one +has seen in the daily papers that it was quite satisfying; I remember +the same feeling of satisfaction when on first going to New England I +saw a frame house and an old man with a goatee beard driving a +spider-wheeled buggy, exactly like an illustration out of _Harper's_.... + +All of which--with the exception of the old man out of _Harper's_--is +not as irrelevant as it may appear, in fact, is not irrelevant at all, +for it is these things, this landscape, these varied races, this whole +atmosphere, which goes to make life's background for everyone quartered +hereabouts, and it is the background which, especially to memory in +after years, makes so great a part of the whole. + +As we went, remember, I still knew nothing about the work I had come out +to see or the lives of those employed in it, I could only watch flashing +past me the outward setting of those lives, and try, from the remarks of +my companion, to build up something else. Yet what I built up from him, +as what I had built up from the talk at my hotel the night before, was +more the attitude of the men towards the women than the attitude of the +women towards their life, though it was none the less interesting for +that. And here I may as well record, what I found at the beginning--and +I saw no reason to reverse my judgment later on--and that was no trace +of sex-jealousy in any department whatsoever. I only met genuine +unemotional, level-headed admiration on the part of the men towards the +women working amongst them. The D. of T. was no exception, and opined +that if the war hadn't done anything else, at least it had killed that +irritating masculine "gag" that women couldn't work together. For that, +after all, will always be to some minds the surprise of the thing--not +that women can work with men, but that they can work together. + +"People talk a lot," he said reflectively, "about what's to happen after +the war ... when it's all over and there's nothing left but to go home. +What's going to happen to all these girls, how will they settle down?" + +"And how do you think...?" + +"I don't think there'll be any trouble whether they marry or not. They +will have had their adventure." + +I looked at him and thought what a penetrating remark that was. Later, +in view of what I came to think and be told, I wondered whether it were +true after all; later still came to what seems to me the solution of it, +or as much of a solution as that can be which still leaves one with an +"I wonder...." + +He told me tales of the Fannies who, being now under the Red Cross, came +directly under his jurisdiction. He told me of a lonely outpost at the +beginning of the war where there was only one surgeon and two Fannies, +and how for twenty-four hours they all three worked, "up to the knees in +blood," amputating, tying up, bandaging, without rest or relief. How the +whole of the work of the convoying of wounded for the enormous Calais +district was done entirely by the girls, of how, at this particular +Fanny convoy to which we were going, they were raided practically every +fine night, and that their camp was in about the "unhealthiest spot," as +regarded raids, in the district. How during the last raid nine aerial +torpedoes fell around the camp, and exploded, and one fell right in the +middle and did not explode, or there would have been very little Fanny +Convoy left ... but how it made a hole seven feet deep and weighed a +hundred and ten pounds and stood higher than a stock-size Fanny. And, +crowning touch of jubilation to the Convoy, of how the French +authorities had promised to present it to them after it was cleaned out +and rendered innocuous, to their no small contentment. As well-earned a +trophy as ever decorated a mess-room.... + +He talked very like a nice father about to show off his girls and back +them against the world. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MY FIRST CONVOY + + +We arrived on a great day for the Fannies--the famous Aerial Torpedo had +preceded us by a bare hour. There it lay, on the floor of the mess-room, +reminding me, with its great steel fins and long rounded nose, of a dead +shark. The Commandant showed it us with pride, and every successive +Fanny entering was greeted with the two words--"It's come." The D. of T. +swore he would have it mounted on a brass and mahogany stand with an +engraved plate to tell its history. Two strong Fannies reared it up, for +even empty its weight was noteworthy, and it stood on its murderous nose +with its wicked fins, the solid steel of one of them bent and crumpled +like a sheet of paper, above my head. A great trophy, and a hard-earned +one. + +This was the first camp I saw, and a very good one as camps go. (I +merely add that latter sentence because personally I think any form of +community life the most terrible of hardships.) It is rather pathetic to +see how, in all the camps in France, the girls have managed to get not +only as individual but as feminine touches as possible. I never saw a +woman's office anywhere in France that was not a mass of flowers; and +window-boxes, flower-beds, basins of bulbs, are cultivated everywhere. +Every office, too, though strictly businesslike, has chintz curtains of +lovely colours. You can always tell a woman's office from a man's, which +is a good sign, and should hearten the pessimists who cry that this +doing of men's work will de-feminise the women. + +The Commandant at this Fannies' camp took me into her office, and she +and the D. of T.--who chimed in whenever he thought she was not saying +enough in praise of his admired Fannies--told me the rough outlines of +the history of the body since the beginning of the war. Though now +affiliated to the Red Cross, they were an independent body before the +war, and when hostilities broke out were a mounted corps, with horse +ambulances. They offered themselves to the English authorities, were +refused, and came out to the war-zone and worked for the Belgians for +fourteen months. They ran a hospital in Calais staffed by themselves for +nurses and with Belgian doctors and orderlies. Then, in the beginning of +1916 they offered to drive motor ambulances and thus release Red Cross +men drivers, and now they are running, with the exception of two +ambulances for Chinese, the whole of the Calais district, and have +released many A.S.C. men as well. It is a big area, with many outlying +camps where there are detached units. As a rule, there is only one girl +to each ambulance, but in very lonely spots the allowance is three girls +to two cars. At St. Omer the authorities at first objected to having +them, but now they have taken over the whole of the Red Cross and A.S.C. +ambulances there. + +At this camp that I saw, they have no day or night shifts, as there is +not much night work except during a push, when everyone works night and +day without more than a couple of hours' sleep snatched with clothes +on--indeed, I heard of a convoy where for a fortnight the girls never +took off their clothes, but just kept on with fragmentary rests. The +other occasion when there is night work is when there is a raid. As I +have said, the camp is in a peculiarly unhealthy spot for bombs, and +until just lately the girls had no raid-shelter. Now one has been dug +for them, roofed with concrete and sandbags and earth, which would stand +anything short of a direct hit from some such pleasant little missile as +is now the pride of the camp. + +But at first, even when the raid-shelter was built, there was no +telephone extension to it from the office, and therefore the Commandant +had to stay in the office with one other to take the telephone calls, +then had to cross the open, in full raid, and going to the mouth of the +shelter call out the names of the girls whose turn it was to drive the +ambulances. She told it me as exemplifying the spirit of the girls, that +never once, through all the noise and danger, did a girl falter, always +answered to her name and came coolly and unconcernedly up the steps and +went across to her car. But it seemed to me that it was as good to sit +quietly in a matchboard office and await the messages, to say nothing of +taking them across that danger zone. Now an order has gone forth that +the ambulances are not to start till the raid is over, as they are too +precious to be risked. + +It is not a bad record, this continuous service of the Fannies since the +outbreak of war, is it? + +For remember it is not work that can be taken up and dropped. You sign +on for six months at a time, and only have two fortnights of leave in +the year. And the girls sign on, again and again; they are nearly all +veterans at it. And, comfortable as the camp has been made--all the +necessities of life are provided by the War Office and the "frills" by +the Red Cross--and in spite of the tiny separate cubicles--greatest +blessing of all--decorated to taste by the owner, in spite of everything +that can be done to make the girls happy and keep them well--it is still +a picnic. And a picnic may be all very well for a week or even a +fortnight, but a picnic carried on over the years is not at all the same +thing.... + +Certainly they all seemed very happy, and are all very well. Girls who +go out rather delicate soon become strong in the hard open air life, +and there has not been a single case of strain from working the heavy +ambulances. The girls do all cleaning and oiling of the cars themselves, +and all repairs with the exception of the very complicated cases, for +which they are allowed to call on the help of two mechanics, but only +after the request has gone through those in authority. + +The domestic staff, with the exception of one Frenchwoman in the +kitchen, is supplied by the girls themselves, and on this subject of +domestic staffs in France I shall say more later. Their food is Army +rations, which are excellent, as I can testify after straitened +England--supplemented by milk and fresh vegetables, while the Red Cross +gives the extras of life such as custard, cornflower, etc. + +When at tea I saw butter brought forth in a lordly dish and was told to +take as much as I liked on hot toast, I felt it was a solemn moment. +There seemed a very care-free atmosphere about the Fannies, and at this +camp the Commandant was known as "Boss," a respectful familiarity I did +not meet anywhere else. Some irreverent soul had even inscribed it on +the door of her cubicle. The Fannies "break out," so to speak, all over +the place; even the bath-room is not sacred to them. It is a pathetic +sight, that bath-room of the Fannies, more pathetic, I thought it, after +I had seen the rows of big baths in other camps. The Fannies have a +limited and capricious water supply, and their bath is so small as to +remove forcibly the temptation for one person to use it all up. Perched +on two stalks of stone stands a long bath in miniature, long enough to +sit in with the knees up, but of no known human size. Inscribed above +it--(under a fresco in black and white of cats in the moonlight)--are +these touching words: "Do not turn on the hot water when the cold is off +or the Boiler will Bust." + +Everything I have been saying and describing is external, I know, but +you see I was still grasping at externals, though underneath certain +things were beginning to worry me. But I couldn't bring myself to voice +anything I was wondering to these splendid strangers; later, though I +never was with any one convoy more than a night, still I got the feeling +that seeing so many of them had made me more familiar with the ones I +happened to be with at the time, and so I screwed myself up to the point +and was richly rewarded. But that, as Mr. Kipling would say, is another +story. + +We drove away in the windy evening, past the parked rows of great glossy +ambulances, and I bore with me chiefly an impression of gaiety, of a set +purpose, of a certain schoolgirlish humour and that knack of making the +best of everything which community life engenders when it does not do +exactly the reverse; of long wooden huts that might have been bare but +were decked with pictures, patterned chintzes, bookshelves, cushions; +and above all, I took an impression of a certain quality that I can only +describe as "stark" in the girls, though that is too bleak a word for +what I mean. It is a sort of splendid austerity, that pervades their +look and their outlook, that spiritually works itself out in this +determined sticking at the job, this avoidance of any emotion that +interferes with it, and in their bodies expresses itself in a disregard +for appearances that one would never have thought to find in human +woman. It leaves you gasping. They come in, windblown, reddened, hot +with exertion, after recklessly abandoning their hands to all the harsh +treatment of a car--the sacrifice of the hands is no small one, and +every girl driving a car makes it--they come in, toss their caps down, +brush their hair back from their brow in the one gesture that no woman +has ever permitted to herself or liked in a lover--and they don't mind. + +It is amazing, that disregard for appearances, but of course it is +partly explained by the fact that the natural tendency in young things +would be to accentuate anything of that kind once it was discovered ... +and for the rest--I really think they are too intent on what they are +doing and care too little about themselves or what anyone may be +thinking of them. What a blessed freedom!... This at last is what it is +to be as free as a man. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OUTPOSTS + + +It is a matter of temperament whether community life, with its enforced +lack of individualism, or the intense refraction engendered by the fact +of two people only living together in a solitude, is the more trying. In +the former state one may hope to attain isolation from the very +superabundance of personalities all around, but for the latter there is +at least this to be said, that if the two feel like leaving each other +alone there is no distraction of noise and presences. Either is a test +to persons who are sensitive about their right to solitude, a greater +one than to those who mix happily with their fellow humans. Both are to +be found in their best expression among the English girls in France. +From the Fanny convoy to a lonely rest station was a change that set me +thinking over the problem, a problem in which I was a mere observer, but +which all these girls had solved each in her different way, doubtless, +but as far as I could tell, to the nicest hair-fine edge of success. + +My first rest station was in an out-of-the-way little place, bleak and +treeless, and consisted of a wooden hut built alongside the railway +line. In this hut lived the two V.A.D.'s who ran the show--which means +that they do the cooking for themselves and for the trains which they +supplied with food, that they dispense medicines for the patients who +appear daily at sick parade, and give first aid to accidents, change +dressings if any cases on a hospital train need it, feed +stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers, whose hours often prevent them +getting back to billets for regular meals, take in nurses who are either +arriving or leaving by a night train and would otherwise have nowhere to +go, and in their spare time--if you can imagine them having any--grow +their own vegetables, and make bandages, pillows, and other supplies for +the troops. Just two girls, voluntary unpaid workers, who are nurses, +needle-women, doctors, chemists, gardeners and general servants, and +whose work can never be done, or, when done, has to begin at once all +over again. No recreation except what they find in books and themselves, +nowhere to go, and that perpetual silhouette of railway trucks and the +hard edge of station roof out of the window, of shabby houses and their +own tiny yard at the back, the noise of shunting and train whistling in +their ears night and day, and with it all--worst touch of the lot--to +have to do their own work for themselves. + +To slave for others all day as long as you can come in and find things +ready for you at night--your hot cocoa in its cup and your hot-water +bag--that great consolation of the women members of the B.E.F.--in your +bed, is endurable. But to come in and have no cocoa if you don't make it +yourself, no bag if you don't see to it--that is a different affair, and +that is where these two girls seemed to me to touch a point that of +necessity the others I had seen did not. And now that women are doing +men's work it is to be supposed they have found out the value of meals +and no longer look on an egg with one's tea as the greatest height to +which nourishment need rise, and hence have honourably to set about +cooking for themselves--and there is no woman but will understand the +boredom of that--the rations that a paternal army insists on showering +upon them. Under such circumstances to work is human, but to eat divine. + +As I stepped out of the car at the door, feeling terribly impertinent at +this rolling round in luxury to gaze at the work of my betters, one of +the V.A.D.'s came to the door of the shanty to greet us. She was a fair +creature, with windblown yellow hair and a smut which kindly accident +had placed exactly like an old-time patch upon the curve of one flushed +cheek. She was wrapped in a big pinafore of butcher blue, and explained +that she was "cleaning up." + +It all looked very clean to me, certainly the little dispensary, the +room into which you first walked, was spotless, everything ranged ready +for Sick Parade, glass, white enamel, metal, shining in the shaft of +sunlight which came palely in at the open doorway. To the left was the +kitchen, stone-floored, fitted with an English stove, to the right the +tiny slip of sitting-room from which opened the two still narrower +little bedrooms. That was all. + +This is the atmosphere in which the two girls live, but, as usual, they +have done everything that is possible with it. Brilliant curtains, +pictures, rows of books--the rest stations keep up a sort of circulating +library, exchanging their books from time to time amongst themselves by +way of the ambulance trains, which are thus supplied with a library +also--and charming pottery ranged along the shelves. The rest stations +rather make a point of their pottery. It is their tradition always to +drink out of bowls instead of cups, and their plates have the triumphant +Gallic cock, in bravery of prismatic plumage, striding across them. + +After I had said good-bye to the golden girl of the inspired smut, I +went on to a bigger rest station at a terminus and was in time to lunch +there. It was a more sophisticated affair than that which I had left, +yet when this rest station was started, at the beginning of the war, its +habitation was a railway truck--for the romance of which some of those +who were there in that first rush, when you were never off your feet +for twenty-four hours at a time, sometimes sigh.... + +Now part of the station buildings has been partitioned off for them, and +there is a fairly big dispensary, with a bed for dressings and accident +cases, of which quite a number are brought in, a kitchen, a little +dining-room where all the furniture is home-made--deep chairs out of +barrels and the like--and behind that a big storeroom, crammed from +floor to ceiling with stores. The girls do not sleep here, but in +billets at the town, but they have to provide meals at any hour and meet +all the ambulance trains with food and extra comforts. + +We had a very good lunch, of stew and onions and potatoes, big bowls of +steaming coffee, and a pudding with raisins, all cooked by one of the +V.A.D. domestic staff, who always had to slip into her place last to eat +it, and get out of it first to serve the next course. I saw only these +two rest stations, each typical in its way, the one of the isolated and +the other of the central kind, but they are scattered up and down the +line, varying in character according to the needs of the particular +place. + +At one, for instance, there is a small ward attached, where slight +cases, not bad enough to be admitted to the hospital, and yet requiring +some attention, can be kept for a day or two, thus possibly avoiding +serious illness. Near to this same one is a Labour Battalion, many of +the men from which are out-patients whose medical inspection is held at +the rest station. Near another is a large convalescent camp, the O.C. of +which looks to the V.A.D.'s of the rest station for help in various +ways. + +At them all there is always the work of feeding the stretcher-bearers +and ambulance drivers, who in times of pressure have to spend many hours +at their work of unloading the trains without any chance of getting a +regular meal. In the early days of the rest stations, when the ambulance +trains were often merely improvised, food and dressings had to be +provided for all the wounded on board, but now, when the working of the +British Red Cross is as near perfection as any human organisation well +can be, the men have every care taken of them on the perfectly-fitted +trains. Yet there is much attention given to the sick and wounded of +every nation who come in on the trains, attention chiefly consisting of +the giving of extra comforts--cocoa, lemons, shirts, slippers, +cigarettes, cushions--and the re-dressing of wounds, while a great deal +as well as feeding them is done for the staffs of the trains, for whom, +besides the lending library, an exchange of gramophone records and of +laundry has been arranged. + +Perhaps the most interesting thing to note about the rest stations is +that they are one of the few points of contact between the members of +the B.E.F. and the French population. Our camps, our hospitals, our +motor convoys, are all little Englands in themselves, but every morning +to the sick parade of these rest stations come not only the local +V.A.D.'s and ambulance drivers, but the French civilian population as +well, and in greater and greater numbers. Accidents are brought to a +rest station very often in preference to being taken anywhere else, and +anxious mothers bring Jean or Marie when a mysterious ailment shows +itself in untoward spot or sneeze. The Gallic cock is more than a +decoration as he strides across the pottery of the rest stations--he is +become a symbol as well. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES + + +When I spoke at H.Q. of the depression I found in all the landscape +around and of its peculiar morbid quality, nearly everyone assured me +that I should find the country round E----, whither I was going, far +more depressing. "There is nothing but sand dunes and huts, miles of +huts, hospitals and camps and so on...." It did not sound very +delightful. + +But to differing vision, differing effects, and personally, I loved +E----; terrible as cities of huts generally are, here they seemed to me +to have lost much of their terror. I loved the long rippling lines of +dunes, the decoration of hundreds of tall pines that came partly against +the sandy pallor, partly against the vivid steely blue of the river +beyond, I loved the bare woods we passed all along the road, the trees +still not perceptibly misted with buds but giving, with their myriads of +fine massed twigs, an effect of clouded wine-colour. And was there ever +such a countryside for magpies? Superstition dies before their numbers, +helpless to count them, so far are they beyond the range of sorrow, +mirth, marriage and birth, at any one glance. Everywhere through those +winey woods there went up the fanlike flutter of black-and-white, the only +positive notes in all the delicate universe, compact of pearly skies, dim +purples of earth, and pale irradiation of the sun. + +[Illustration: H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A "VAD" DOMESTIC STAFF] + +[Illustration: A V. A. D. MOTOR CONVOY] + +[Illustration: WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY] + +[Illustration: WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN] + +On the roads there was the usual medley of the races of the world, added +to as we neared E---- by Canadian nurses in streaming white veils and +uniforms of brilliant blue, and also--for surely the most delightful of +created blessings may rank as a race of the world--by the glossy golden +war-dogs, who also have their training camp near here, and take their +walks abroad, waving their plumy tails and jumping up on their masters, +like any leisured dog at home. + +But--to my sorrow--I was not sent to look at war-dogs, and so had to +pass by and leave the wagging plumes behind. I had several ends in view +at E----; I had to see the large Waac camp there, its outflung +ramifications, and the work that the Waacs did in the men's camps; and I +had to see the V.A.D. Motor Convoy, at which I was to spend a night. +Incidentally, I had high hopes of getting permission to go out in an +ambulance with the latter, though it is against the most sacred Army +Orders for anyone not in uniform to be seen upon an ambulance. Here I +may say that the permission was granted by a powerful individual known +as the D.D.M.S., though he mentioned that being shot at dawn was the +least painful thing that ought to happen to me for doing it. + +I was going first to the Waac headquarters, to see the Area Controller, +who corresponds to an Area Commandant in the V.A.D.'s and whose rank +approximates to that of a Major. She is supreme in her area and only the +Chief Controller of the Waacs is above her. Below her are her Unit +Administrators, who are in charge of units and approximate to captains, +and have their Deputy and Assistant Administrators whom for convenience' +sake we can classify as lieutenants and second lieutenants. + +This is the place to say frankly that I had heard--as had we all--"the +rumors" that were flying round about the Women's Army. They "weren't a +success," ... "it had been found to be unworkable ..." and, as reason, a +more specific charge. Need I say what that specific charge was? What is +it that always jumps to the mind of the average materialist? The most +innocent thing in the world--in itself--and the cause of most of the +scandal since the dawn of civilisation. A Baby. + +There is a certain type of mind which always jumps to babies, apparently +looking on them as the Churchmen of the Middle Ages looked on women--as +the crowning touch of evil in an evil world. If you remember, there was +great agitation in certain quarters at the beginning of the war, over +"War-Babies." They were going to inundate the country, they were going +to be a very serious proposition indeed. The Irish question, +Conscription, Conscientious Objectors, were going to be as nothing to +the matter of the War-Babies. It is perhaps from some points of view a +pity that the War-Babies didn't materialize, but that of course is +another question altogether. "Passons oultre," as the great Master of +delicate--and indelicate--situations used to say. + +The point as regards the Women's Army is that the whole of the agitation +against it is a libel, and one which decent people should be ashamed to +circulate even as supposititious. Quite apart from the evidence of my +own ears and eyes, at various camps I was supplied with the official +statistics for the Women's Army from March of 1917 to February of 1918. +And of these women who "have not been a success," as the mischievous +gossip has had it, how many do you think have proved failures out of six +thousand? In the time mentioned fourteen have been sent home for +incompetence, without any slur on their characters; twenty-three for +lack of discipline, mostly in the early days when the girls did not +realise what being in the Army meant and thought if they wanted to go to +any particular place there was no reason why they shouldn't; and fifteen +who were already _enceinte_ before leaving England and which even the +most censorious can hardly lay to the charge of the B.E.F. And of all +that six thousand what percentage do you suppose has had to be sent back +for what is euphemistically known, I believe, as "getting into trouble," +since landing in France? No percentage at all, if I may express myself +thus unmathematically, but exactly five cases. Five, out of six +thousand. Compare that with the morality of any village in England, or +anywhere else in the world, and then say, if you dare to be so obviously +dishonest, that there is any reason why the Women's Army should be +aspersed. + +These statistics were given to me at the office of the Area Controller, +and later repeated at the Women's Army H.Q. by the Controller in Chief, +but on that first sunny morning amongst the pines and pale golden +sand-dunes it was naturally the human and individual side rather than +any of figures, however startling, that claimed the mind the most. For +one thing, I had the actual organisation and attributes of the Women's +Army to learn. I knew nothing. The actual working knowledge, apart from +impressions and things learnt only by seeing them, that I gathered +during the days I spent at various Waac centres is as follows: + +The Women's Army differs from the F.A.N.Y. and the V.A.D. in being a +paid instead of a voluntary body, in being directly under the Army, not +the Red Cross, and in its members being ranked as privates. But it also +differs from the G.S.V.A.D., though that too is paid and its members +rank as privates. The G.S.V.A.D. is far more "mixed"; its members are of +all classes and educations, and are drafted off for work accordingly, +but the bulk of the Waacs are working girls and do manual labour, such +as gardening, cooking, baking, scrubbing, etc., though there are amongst +them girls of a more specialised education who are signallers and +clerks. The officers, of course, are women of education who have +undergone a stiff training and been carefully selected for the posts +they fill. For, as will be seen, nearly everything depends upon the Waac +officers; they have certainly a greater power for good or harm than the +officers in the Regular Army, and never were both the force and danger +of personality more acutely illustrated than in the position of the Waac +leaders. + +A Unit Administrator has to know individually every girl in her camp, +though there may be several hundreds. She has to blend with her absolute +authority a maternal interest and supervision. While she has no power to +say whom a girl shall or shall not "walk out" with, she yet makes it her +business to know what choice of men friends the girl makes and to +influence, as far as she can, that choice towards discretion. She must +not nag but must inculcate by subtle methods a realisation of what is +due to the uniform, a sense of the "idea," the "symbol," of it. She +does not actually say to a girl that she is not to walk arm in arm with +a Tommy or pin her collar with her paste brooch, but she conveys to her +that these things are not done in the best uniforms.... And the girl +learns with incredible rapidity. A thing is Not Done--what a potency in +those words; in that attitude of mind! It probably influenced the +earliest savages in the manner of wearing their cowries. + +After all, the whole idea of uniform, of distinguishing one caste from +another by bits of different coloured cloth, is based on the instinct +for being superior. Was it not John Selden who said something to the +effect that our rulers have always tried to make themselves as different +from us as possible? Of course they have, and it is exactly the same +thing which the wise Pope Gregory VII had in mind when he definitely +crystallised the measures for celibacy of the priesthood, and it is +exactly the same thing which puts the policeman into a dark blue uniform +and a helmet before he can so much as stop a milkcart. A policeman in +plain clothes is a dethroned monarch. Nothing in the nature of +controlling others was ever done without dressing up. The marvel is that +for so many centuries the principle should have been confined to the +masculine sex, when it has such an obvious appeal to the feminine. + +This principle when carried a step further and applied to those +controlled, by giving them also the sensation of being different from +the rest of the world, results in that spirit called _esprit de corps_, +which is really _esprit de l'uniforme_. Towards the rest of the world +the uniformed are proud of being different, amongst themselves proud of +being alike, and the more alike, so to speak, the aliker. It is not a +thing to treat scornfully, for it has the whole of symbolism behind it. +That which makes a man cheerfully die for a piece of bunting which, +prosaically speaking, _is_ only a piece of bunting that happens to be +dyed red, white, and blue, is part of this same spirit. Dull of soul +indeed must he be who can look without a profound emotion on the +tattered "colours" of a regiment, and yet it is only the idea, the +symbol, that makes these things what they are.... + +And for most of these girls, remember, it is the first time they have +had a symbol held before them.... We of the upper classes are brought up +with many reverences--for our superiors, our elders, for traditions, but +the classes which for want of a better word I must call "lower"--so +please do not cavil at me for doing so or attribute false meanings--are +for the most part brought up to think themselves as good as anyone else, +and their "rights" the chief thing in life; while owing to the +unfortunate curriculum of our Board Schools, which does not insist +nearly enough on history as the fount of the present and of all that is +great and good in the past, they are left without those standards of +impersonal enthusiasms and imaginative daring--which should be the +rightful inheritance of us all. + +These girls are now given an abstract idea to live up to, no mere +standard of expediency, but an idea that appeals to the imagination. And +how magnificently they are responding those statistics show, but more +still does the attitude of all the officers and men who have to do with +them. I talked with all ranks on the subject, and never once did I meet +with anything but admiration and enthusiasm. The men are touchingly +grateful to them and value their work and their companionship. For, very +wisely, the girls are encouraged to be friends with the men, are allowed +to walk out with them, to give teas and dances for them in the Y.W.C.A. +huts, and to go to return parties given by the men in the Y.M.C.A. huts. +It is, of course, easy to sneer at the ideal which is held before the +men, of treating these girls as they would their sisters, but the fact +remains that they very beautifully do so. + +Another point to be remembered is, that, far from these girls being +exposed to undue temptation, the great majority of them have never been +so well looked after as now. They are mostly girls of a class that knows +few restrictions, who, with the exception of those previously in +domestic service, have always had what they call their "evenings," when +they roamed the streets or went to the cinemas with their "boys." + +Now every Waac has to be in by eight, can go nowhere without permission, +is carefully though unostentatiously shepherded, and is provided with +healthy recreation, such as Swedish exercises, Morris dancing, hockey, +and the like. In short, she is now looked after and guarded as young +girls of the educated classes are normally. + +And these are the girls, good, honest, hard-working creatures, who have +been maligned in whispers and giggles up and down the country. It is +perhaps needless to say that they are naturally very indignant over it, +that the parents of many write to them agitatedly to demand if it's all +true and to beg them to come back, and that sometimes, when they are +home on leave, instead of their uniforms bringing them the respect and +honour they deserve and which every man overseas accords to them, they +are subjected to insult from people who have nothing better to do than +to betray to the world the pitiable condition of their own nasty minds. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE BROWN GRAVES + + +When first one has dealings with the Waacs and their officers, one +imagines distractedly that one has fallen among Royalty. This is because +the word "Ma'am" is always used by a Waac when speaking to another of +superior rank, till you very nearly find yourself bobbing. Later this +impression is strengthened by the memory for faces which every Waac +officer displays in a manner one has always been taught to consider +truly royal. It is only among themselves that any titles exist; to the +outside world, even the Army officers, each Waac officer is mere "Mrs." +or "Miss," whichever she may chance to be. The "putting on of frills" +has been avoided with extraordinary dexterity; there is just enough +ritual to make the girls feel they belong to an organised body, without +the enemy being given occasion to blaspheme by saying that women like +playing at being men. In France, though not in England, the girls salute +their officers, as this helps them to get at the "idea" of the +thing--that feeling of being part of an ordered whole, which is so +valuable. + +In the matter of uniforms, someone at the War Office, or wherever these +things are thought out, has really had a rather charming series of +inspirations. At first the women wore the same badges as denote the +ranks of soldiers, but a paternal--or should one not almost say +maternal?--Government evidently thought that not feminine enough, and +now the badges of varying rank are roses, fleur-de-lys and laurel +leaves, a touch which would have delighted old Andrew Marvell. + +One of the chief activities of the Waacs is cooking, and when, escorted +by the D.D.M.S., whom I have before mentioned, I arrived at the little +wooden office amidst the pines, it was to hear a one-sided conversation +on the telephone between the Area Controller and various great ones of +the earth who were frantically ringing up for cooks. Also a new +Officers' Club for senior officers wanting a rest from the firing line +is just being opened near E----, and it is to be staffed by Waacs and +the cook is to be of the very best. Punch's immortal advice as to the +treatment of husbands is not forgotten by the Waac controllers when +questions of this kind arise. + +After talk of cooks came the seeing of cooks, in a big camp and Small +Arms school near. Kitchens are kitchens and mess-rooms mess-rooms +everywhere you go, and beyond a general impression of extreme +cleanliness, an extraordinarily appealing smell of stew, and the sight +of great branches of mimosa set about the long mess tables, there is +nothing of particular interest to describe. The point is that all the +preparing and the serving of food in this great camp for officers and +men is done by women and that all the male creatures are unreservedly +jubilant at the change. The C.O. expressed his hope that after the war +the W.A.A.C. would continue as a permanent part of the Army, while a +sergeant gave it as his opinion that the women managed to introduce so +much more variety into the preparation of the food than the men had +done. Also, he added that they wasted much less. + +In every kitchen there is a forewoman cook--there are these forewomen in +every department of the work of the women, and they correspond rather to +the "noncoms" among the men. At present they are distinguished by a +bronze laurel leaf and always have their own mess-room and sitting-room +as distinct from the rest of the girls, but it is rather an influence +than an authority which is vested in them, though the advisability of +definitely endowing them with more of the latter is being considered. +They "answer," as the rest of the Waac machinery does, extremely well. + +An interesting point about army kitchens, as they are run nowadays, is +that after the amount of fats necessary to the cooking has been put +aside, the rest is poured into great tins, graded according to its +quality, and sent home for munitions. We are getting things down to the +fine edge of no-waste at last, and the women are helping to do it. + +At another camp I found the C.O. most anxious for the women to start a +Mending Factory--it would be such a help to the men, who, unlike +sailors, are not adept at the repairing of their clothes. Also a +laundry, he intimated, would be necessary really to round off the scheme +satisfactorily. Both these are thoroughly sound suggestions that may +yet, let us hope, come to something, though they would be in a sense +breaking new ground, as the idea of the Waacs is that they actually +replace men. Each cook releases one man, while among the clerks at +present the ratio is four women to three men. And there are already six +thousand Waacs in France.... Does not this give the obvious reason why +slanders, started by enemy agents, have been busy trying to drive the +Women's Army out of France? + +Every Waac who goes to France is like the pawn who attains the top of +the chessboard and is exchanged for a more valuable piece. She sends a +fighting man to his job by taking on the jobs that are really a woman's +after all. For is it not woman's earliest job to look after man? + +She looks after him to keep him well and strong, she looks after him +when he is ill--and now, in France, she looks after the gallant dead, +who are lying in the soil for which they fought. Between the pines and +the gleaming river with its sandy shoals are the rows of crosses, +sparkling, the ash grey wood of them, in the effulgence of the spring +light, making hundreds of points of brightness above the earth still +brown and bare, that soon, under the gardeners' care, will blossom like +the rose. Not a desert even now--for no place where fighters rest is a +desert--but a place expectant, full of the promise of beauty to come, an +outward beauty which is what it calls for as its right, because it is +holy ground. Not only in the merely technical sense as the consecrated +earth of quiet English cemeteries, where lie all, both those who lived +well and those who lived basely, but holy as a place can only be when it +is held by those who all died perfectly.... + +Here and there, among the earth-brown graves, stooping above them, are +the earth-brown figures of the gardeners. Every grave is freshly raked, +moulded between wooden frames to a flat, high surface where the flowers +are to overflow, and above every raised dais of earth the bleached wood +of the cross spreads its arms, throwing a shadow soft and blue like a +dove's feather, a shadow that curves over the mound and laps down its +edge lightly as a benison. On each cross is the little white metal plate +giving the name and regiment of the man who lies beneath and the letters +R.I.P. Here and there is an ugly stiff wreath of artificial immortelles +beneath a glass frame, the pathetic offering of those who came from +England to lay it there. + +Sometimes a wreath fresh and green shows that someone who loves the dead +man has sent money with a request that flowers shall be bought and put +upon his grave on the anniversary of his death. Sometimes, when they +come over from England, these poor people break down and turn blindly, +as people will for comfort, to the nearest sympathy, to the women +gardeners who are showing them the grave they came to see. And a sudden +note of that deep undercurrent which at times of stress always turns the +members of either sex to their own sex for comfort sends the women +mourners to the arms of the women who are working beside them. +Sentiment, if you will--but a sentiment that is stirred up from the deep +and which would scorn the apologies of the critical. + +And what of the girls who work daily on that sacred earth, who see +before their eyes, bright in the sun, inexpressibly grey and dauntless +in the rain, those serried rows of crosses, all so alike and each +standing for a different individuality, a different heartbreak--Do you +suppose that they will ever again forget the aspect of those silent +witnesses to the splendour and the unselfishness and the utter release +from pettiness of the men who lie there? This is what it is to make good +citizens, and that is what the members of the Women's Army are doing +daily. They are not only doing great things for the men--but they are +making of themselves, come what conditions may after the war, efficient, +big-minded citizens who will be able to meet with them. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VIGNETTES + + +The interesting thing about the various places where Waacs are housed, +which I saw, is that no two of them were alike in atmosphere. I had +rather dreaded much seeing of camps, but, as a matter of fact, though I +saw two, they were totally unlike each other, while the other three +places that I saw each had an aspect, a character, unlike the others. +One was a convalescent home for Waacs, set amidst pine-trees, a house of +deep wide stairs, airy rooms, long cushioned chairs, and flowers, where +one might well be content to be just-not-well for a long time; the +others were houses where those Waacs lived who were not in camps. + + * * * * * + +Four jaunty chalets, chalk-white in the sun, hung with painted +galleries, face the rolling sand-dunes, behind them the sea, a darker +blue than any of the shadows of land on such a high-keyed day. They are +little pleasure-villas, these chalets, fancy erections for summer +visitors, built in the days when this little Plage was a resort for +Parisians playing at rusticity. Delicious artificial useless-looking +creations, bearing apparently about as much relation to a normal house +as a boudoir-cap does to a bowler. Yet they are charming as only little +French pleasure-villas can be, and to the receptive mind it is their +artificiality that makes such a delightful note of--well, not decadence, +but dilettantism--in this rolling sandy place, where only the hand of +Nature is to be seen all around, no town, no village even, impinging on +the curving skylines, the very road up to their doors but a track in the +sand. + +In these villas live incongruous Waacs, their khaki-clad forms swing up +the wooden stairs to the galleries, and lean from the windows, always +open their widest, night and day. Less incongruous the stout boots and +khaki inside, as, though the chintzes are bright and gay, there is an +aspect of stern utility, combined with an austerity that somehow suits +the blank sandiness of the surroundings. In each little scrubbed room +are two beds, each--for the Waacs live in true Army fashion--with its +dark grey blankets folded up at the head of the bare mattress; in the +sick bay alone the beds are covered with bright blue counterpanes. In +the recreation room and the Forewomen's Mess are easy chairs of wicker +and flowers and pictures. It is all done as charmingly as it can be with +a strict eye to suitability; it is community life, of course, but +brought as nearly as possible to that feeling of individuality which +makes a home with a small "h" instead of with the dreaded capital. + + * * * * * + +This other house was as great a contrast to the bare little chalets as +it well could be. It also was at a Plage, it too had been built for +pleasure, but for pleasure _de luxe_, not of simple bourgeois families. +The wide hall with its polished floor, its great carved mantels, its +dining-room with gleaming woods and glossy table and sparkling glass, +its big lounge with tall windows, where the girls dance and play the +piano--all was as different from the bleached scrubbed wood of the +chalets as it well could be. Yet the spirit informing the whole was the +same, the bedrooms as austere in essence even if they boasted carved +marble-topped chests, and even here the Army had found things to +improve, such as the making of paths at the back of the house of round +tins sunk in the earth, and steps of tin biscuit boxes, ingenious +arrangements to save getting your feet wet on a muddy day as you go in +and out on the endless errands of domesticity. And, as I sat at lunch in +the gleaming dining-room, where the wood fire burned on the wide stone +hearth, I heard the girls practising for a musical play they were +shortly to produce. + + * * * * * + +A camp is, of course, a camp, but there is a certain satisfaction in +seeing how well even a necessary evil can be done. Where all was +excellent, the chief thing that really thrilled me was the bath-rooms. +The Waacs' bath-rooms are the envy and despair of the Army, who rage +vainly in small canvas tubs. The Engineers are by way of spoiling the +Waacs whenever possible, and bath-rooms, electric bells, electric light +and fancy paths of tin, spring up before them. There are in every Waac +camp rows of bath-rooms containing each its full-length bath, and +besides that, each girl has her own private wash-place, in a cubicle for +the purpose. For, as the Chief Controller said to me, "After all, it +does not matter the girls having to sleep together in dormitories if +each has absolute privacy for washing, that is so much more important." +To which it is quite possible to retort that there are those of us who +would not mind bathing in front of the whole world if only we are +allowed to sleep by ourselves. But that is just a different point of +view, and as a matter of fact, for the class from which the greater part +of the Waacs are drawn, privacy in ablutions ranks as a greater thing +than privacy in slumber, so the psychological instinct which planned the +camps is justified. + +Besides the bath-rooms and the ablution cubicles, there is in every camp +one or more drying-rooms, which are always heated, and where the wet +clothes of the girls, who of course have to be out in all weathers, are +hung to dry. Laundry, kitchens, recreation rooms, mess-rooms, long +Nissen huts for sleeping, I went the round of them all, and, while +genuinely admiring them, admired still more those who lived in them. + +Personally, I don't like a Nissen hut nearly as much as the ordinary +straight-walled sort. I know they are wonderfully easy to erect and to +move, but when it comes to trying to tack a picture on those curved +walls.... And the girls depend so on their little bits of things, such +as pictures and photographs from home. You will always see in every +cubicle, above every bed in a long hut, the girl's own private gallery, +the _lares and penates_ which make of her, in her bed at least, an +individual. In a Nissen hut you have to turn your head upside down to +get a view of the picture gallery at all, though it has its advantages +to the girl herself as she lies in bed and can look at the faces of her +parents, absolutely concave, curving over her nose. + +As I was leaving this camp I heard sounds of music and the stamping of +feet, and going to the Y.W.C.A. hut the Unit Administrator and I looked +in. There, to a vigorously pounded piano, an instructress from the +Y.M.C.A. was teaching a dozen or so girls Morris dancing. They beamed at +us from hot glowing faces, these mighty daughters of the plough, and +continued to foot it as merrily, if as heavily, as any Elizabethan +villagers dancing in their Sunday smocks around a Maypole. + + * * * * * + +One more camp I saw, on a later day, and though it was a camp, yet it +had that about it which distinguished it from all others. For it was +built round about a hoary castle, grey with years and lichen, from whose +walls they say Anne Boleyn looked down, standing beside her robust and +rufous lover on that honeymoon which was almost all of happiness she was +to know. + +Now it is an Army School, and within its grey walls and towers the +officers are billeted and in its great kitchens the Waacs cook for them +and do all the rest of the domestic work, waiting on the officers' mess +and the sergeants' mess, serving at the canteen, doing all the cleaning, +everything that there is to be done for a whole army school of hungry +men down on a five-weeks' course, to say nothing of all the work for +themselves in their camp at the castle's gates, and there are sixty-six +of them, not counting the three officers who are at every Waac camp--the +Unit Administrator, and the Deputy and Assistant Administrators. It is +hard work, and endless work, and though every Waac gets a few hours off +every day, and though, as you have seen, everything is done for their +healthy recreation that can be done, yet the life is one of work and not +of fun, and though the girls flourish under it, we at home should not +forget that fact when we give them their due meed of appreciation. + +But, hard as the life is, it seemed to me that at that camp which has +the happiness to be at this castle, its duress must be assuaged by the +beauty of what is always before the eyes. Buried in woods it is, still +bare when I saw them, but with the greenish yellow buds of daffodils +already beginning to unfold in great clumps through the purple-brown +alleys, and with primroses making drifts of honey-pallor and +honey-sweetness beside the slopes of ground ivy, while from beyond the +curving ramparts of the castle shows the steely-quiet glimmer of a lake. + +For war this castle was built, and war she now sees once again, for the +arts of war are taught within her walls. And how Anne Boleyn's roving +eyes would have brightened at the sight of so much youth, at the sound +of so many spurs! Let us hope her sore spirit can still find pleasure in +wandering again over the scenes where she once was happy, and if she has +kept enough of innocent wantonness to love a straight man when she sees +one, ghost though she be, and if her nose turn up ever so daintily at +the clumsily-clad members of her own sex, whose toils she would so +little understand ... why, she is but a ghost, and the modern mind must +contrive to forgive her. + + * * * * * + +These slight vignettes have all been of vision; let me add one of a less +pictorial nature. The Unit Administrators, as I have said, have to act +not only as commanding officers, but very often as mother-confessors as +well. Parents write to them about their daughters, would-be suitors +write to them for permission to marry their charges, and amongst the +letter-bag are often epistles that are not without their unconscious +humour. One day a mother writes to point out that she and the rest of +the family are changing houses, and so may Flossie please come home for +a few days ... another mentions that Gladys's letters of late have been +despondent, and please could she be put to something else that will not +depress her? Then Gladys is had up in front of the Unit Administrator, +and perhaps turns out to be one of the born whiners found everywhere, +perhaps to be merely suffering from a passing fit of what our +ancestresses would have called the megrims. If her work is found to be +really unfitted to her and it is possible to give her a change, then it +is done, but as a rule that is seldom the case, as, rather differently +from what we used to hear was the way in the Army, every Waac Controller +finds out what the girl is best at and what she likes doing most, and +then, as far as possible, arranges her work accordingly. + +Perhaps a letter comes from a Tommy in His Majesty's forces, and begins +something like this:-- + + "DEAR MADAM, + + "I beg to ask your permission to marry Miss D. Robinson, at + present under your command...." + +The Unit Administrator writes back that she will endeavour to arrange +leave for the marriage; and perhaps all goes well, or perhaps some such +lugubrious letter as this will follow:-- + + "DEAR MADAM, + + "_Re_ Miss D. Robinson, at present under your command, take no + notice of my former letter, as Miss D. Robinson has broken off + the engagement...." + +Human nature will be inhuman, in camps and out of them, and because Miss +D. Robinson is doing a man's work is no reason why she should shed the +privileges of her sex. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +EVENING + + +Grey rain was falling in straight thin lines upon the landscape, +suddenly changed from its splendour of sun-bright sands and blue +gleaming river to a blotted greyness. The rain danced over the trampled +earth at the V.A.D. Motor Convoy Camp, filling the hollows with wrinkled +water and making the great ambulances shine darkly. It was not a +pleasant evening, being very cold withal, and snow fell amid the rain, +but the Commandant took me out in her car to give me as comprehensive a +view of E---- as could be seen in the gathering dusk. + +When I say E---- I don't mean the little French fishing village, near +which we did not go, but the whole vast town of huts set up by the +B.E.F. For E---- is become a town of hospitals. We swung round corners, +down long intersecting roads, about and about, and always there were +hospitals, long rows of hospitals, each a little town in itself. I was +reminded of nothing so much as the great temporary townships in the +Canal Zone at Panama. There is just the same look of permanence +combined with the feeling of it all being but temporary, while +materially there is an air about board and tin buildings which is the +same the world over. I almost expected to see a negro slouch along with +his tools slung on his back, or to catch sight of the dark film of a +mosquito-proof screen over doors and windows. + +And the Motor Convoy do all of the ambulance work of the whole big +district, which spreads considerably beyond even this great hospital +town. There are about one hundred and thirty members in the camp and +about eighty of the big Buick ambulances. Unlike the Fanny convoy I had +seen, there are at E---- always day and night shifts, a girl being on +night duty for one fortnight and on day duty for the next, except in +times of stress, when everyone works day and night too. + +We came in from our drive in the dark and I was shown to the room I was +to have for as much of the night as there would be, considering I was +going out on a convoy at one o'clock. It belonged to a V.A.D. at the +moment home on leave, but she had left a nice selection of bed-books +behind her, for which I was grateful, and there was a little electric +reading lamp perched on the shelf above the bed. It was a tiny place, +but it was all to myself. + +At supper in the mess-room, with Mr. Leps, the Great Dane, lying by the +stove and the cat curled between his outflung paws, we were waited on +by a very pretty V.A.D. with dark eyes and a deeply moulded face +compact of soft curves and pallor. Afterwards, the Commandant, a few of +the girls, and I went into her room, which was a trifle larger than the +ordinary run, and could be called a sitting-room at one end, for coffee +and cigarettes. There was a concert on, and I was asked whether I would +like to go to it, and, at the risk of seeming ungracious, I said if they +didn't mind I would rather not. They said that they would rather not, +too. I had seen the camp before dinner, had marvelled again how people +ever got used to living in match-boxes and having to cross a strip of +out-of-doors world to meals, and I was only wanting to sit still, +and--if the Fates were kind--listen. + +For all the time, as during the preceding days, I had felt the +depression growing over me, the terror of this communal life which took +all you had and left you--what? What corner of the soul is any refuge +when solitude cannot be yours in which to expand it? What vagrant +impulse can be cherished when liberty is not yours to indulge it? + +These girls, these strong, clear-eyed creatures whom I had seen, day +after day, who had at first impressed me only with their youth, their +school-girl gaiety, their--_horribile dictu_--their "brightness"--was it +possible that this life should really content them? I am not talking +now, remember, of Waacs, girls mostly of the working class, or of those +used to the sedentary occupation of clerkships, to whom this life is the +biggest freedom, the greatest adventure, they have known. I am talking +about girls of a class who, in the nature of things, lived their own +lives, before the war, did the usual social round, went hither and +thither with no man to say them nay--except a father, who doesn't count. +Young _femmes du monde_, there is no adequate English for it, +sophisticated human beings. + +For women, even the apparently merely out-of-door hunting games-playing +women, have arrived at a high state of sophistication; and this life +they now lead is a community life reduced to its essentials. And a +community life, though the building up of it marked the first stages of +civilisation, is, to the perfected product of civilisation, anathema. +Individuals had to combine to make the world, but now that it is made, +all the instincts of the most highly developed in it are towards +complete liberty as regards the amount of social intercourse in which he +or she wishes to indulge. We have fought through thousands of years for +a state of society so civilised that it is safe to withdraw from it and +be alone without one's enemy tracking one down and hitting one over the +head with an axe. + +This right, fought for through the ascending ages, these girls have +deliberately forgone, as every man in the Army has to forgo it also. +Were they aware of this? Or did they, after all, like it, unthinkingly, +without analysis? + +I had wondered as I saw my previous convoys and camps, and I had +wondered again as I saw over this convoy--saw the usual tiny cubicles, +with gay chintz curtains and photographs from home, and the shelf of +books, saw the great bare mess-rooms, the sitting-room, bright with +cushions, cosy with screens and long chairs, saw the admirable +bath-rooms, with big enamelled baths and an unlimited supply of hot +water, saw the two parks where the great ambulances were ranged, shadowy +and huge in the growing gloom and thick downpour of rain. Everywhere +smiling faces, uplifted voices, quick steps--yet I wondered. + +Was it possible this malaise of community life never weighed on their +souls? And, if possible--was it good that it should be so? + +I managed, stumblingly, to convey something of my thought, of the +depression which had been eating at me--not, as I tried to explain, that +I didn't admire them all, Heaven knew, rather that I must be, +personally, such a weak-kneed, backboneless creature to feel I couldn't, +for any cause on earth, have stood it. And I wanted--how I wanted--to +know how it was they did ... whether they really and actually could like +it...? "Of course, I know," I ended apologetically, "some people like a +community life----" + +"They must be in love with it to like community life carried to this +extent, then," said one swiftly, and a small, fair creature, with a +ribbon bound round her hair, agreed with her. She interested me, that +fair girl, because she was one of those people who feel round for the +right word until they have found it, however long it takes; impervious +to cries of "Go on, get it off your chest," she still sat quietly and +wrestled until the word came which exactly expressed the fine edge of +her meaning. She knew so well what she wanted to say that she didn't +want to say it any differently. + +They all talked, each throwing in a sentence to the discussion now and +again, but not one of them grumbled. Yet they all showed plainly that it +was not a blind enjoyment--or, indeed, much enjoyment at all--that they +found in the life. They were reasoning, critical, analytic, and +extraordinarily dispassionate. + +I can't put that conversation down for two reasons, the first being that +one doesn't print the talk of one's hostesses, and the second that it +would be too difficult to catch all those little half-uttered sentences, +those little alleys of argument that led to understanding, but led +elliptically, as is the way of either sex when it is unencumbered by the +necessity of dotting its i's for the comprehension of the other. But out +of that hour emerged, shining, several things which we in England ought +to realise better, and which lifted for me that cloud of depression +which had lowered over me all the days in France. + +These are not bouncing school-girls, "good fellows" having the time of +their lives, as vaguely those in England consider them, they are, thank +goodness, finely-evolved human beings who no more enjoy "brightness" +than you or I would. And it was the terrible feeling that everyone was +so "bright" which had oppressed me more than anything else. The joy of +finding that it wasn't so, that what I had feared I should be forced to +take as the unreflecting school-girl humour of overgrown school-girls +was only a protective aspect, that behind it the eyes of not only sane +but subtle young women looked out with amusement and patience upon a +world determined to see in them, first and last, "brightness"! + +Perhaps five per cent.--such was the estimate flung out into the +talk--of the girls really do enjoy it, the ghastly, prolonged, +cold-blooded picnic of it, perhaps five per cent. really are having the +"time of their lives," but the rest of them have moments when it hardly +seems possible to stick it. Yet they stick it, and stick it in good +comradeship, which is the greatest test of the lot. Their salvation lies +in the separate rooms--small, cold, but a retreat from the octopus of +community life.... + +[Illustration: WAACS IN THE BAKERY] + +[Illustration: WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES] + +[Illustration: WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SANDBAGS] + +That concert which I had felt so apologetic not to attend--what a relief +it had been to them that I didn't want to, didn't want to get "local +colour" and write of them as being so jolly, so gay! For this again is +typical--there are perhaps five girls out of every hundred who enjoy +being amused, to whom it is all part of the life which they actually +love, but from the greater part goes up the cry, "Work us as hard as you +like, but for Heaven's sake don't try and amuse us!" + +For, of course, it takes differing temperaments differently. To some +community life is little short of a nightmare, but to all there come +moments when it is exceedingly maddening. In those moments your own room +or a big hot bath are wonderful ways of salvation. + +As we talked, from A. came the theory that she was only afraid it would +prevent her ever loving motors again; and she had always adored motors +as the chief pleasure of life, before they became the chief business. B. +could not agree to that. C., who did agree, pointed out that it was on +the same principle as never wanting to go back to a place, no matter how +beautiful it was, if you had been very unhappy there. Even after your +unhappiness was dead and buried it would always spoil that place for +you.... B. said "Yes" to that, but argued that it would not spoil the +beauty of other places for you, which would be the equivalent of this +life spoiling all motors for A., after the war. + +The flaws in the analogy were not pursued, for D. advanced an +interesting theory that the hardest part of it was that you were so +afraid of what you might be missing all the time somewhere else. She +argued that the difficulty with her had always been to make up her mind +to any one course of action, because it shut off all the others, and, +like so many of us, she wanted everything.... + +A. said that shilly-shalliers never got anywhere, but I maintained with +D. that it wasn't shilly-shallying, which is another sort of thing +altogether, it was the passionate desire to get the most out of life, to +discover what was most worth while. "I want to spend ten years in the +heart of China more than to do any one thing," I pointed out, "but I +sha'n't do it because when I came out I shouldn't be young any more. +Therefore the ten years in China will have to go to a man, because it +doesn't matter so much to a man." This life in the B.E.F. was D.'s ten +years in China, not because--heaven forbid--it is going to last ten +actual years, or even that, as far as I could see, it was ageing her at +all, but simply because while she was doing it she couldn't be doing +anything else. She had had to burn her boats. + +Now that, to a certain temperament, means a great deal, and it is one of +the things, if not the chief thing, that marks service in France off +from equally hard work at home, and makes it, for reasons outside the +work, so much harder. + +All natures are not the same as D.'s, of course. To one girl a certain +thing is the hardship, to another a different thing. But the point is +that the hardship is there, not physical, but mental, and to me it was +the most exquisite discovery I could have made in the whole of France. +For the finer the instrument, the more fine it is of it to perform the +work, and the more finely will that work, in the long run, be done. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NIGHT + + +Not being among the lucky creatures who can fall happily to sleep when +they know they are to be called at one o'clock, I lay in my tiny bed and +revelled in that wonderful story of "The Bridge Builders" out of "The +Day's Work," till the sound of the storm without became the voice of +Mother Gunga. Then I turned out the light and lay and listened to the +truly fiendish train whistles which no reading could have transmuted, +and wondered why it is that French engine drivers apparently pay no +attention to signals, but just go on whistling till they are answered, +like someone who goes on ringing a bell till at length the door is +opened. The rain was turning to snow, so there was less of that steady +tinkling from without with which running water fills the world. I lay +and listened; and the whistles and the bellying of the chintz curtain +and the occasional swish of a heavy gust against the side of the hut +were at last beginning to blend in one blur in my mind when a girl came +softly into my room and whispered that it was time to dress. + +That utter quietness of the girls was a thing that had impressed me +after staying in hotels full of the British Army, which goes to bed at +midnight, bangs its doors, throws its boots outside, shouts from room to +room, and begins the whole process, reversed, at about six o'clock the +next morning. Here the girls wore soundless slippers, so that those who +had to be about should not disturb those who slept, and doors were +opened and shut with a cotton-wool care which appealed to me, or would +have, if I hadn't had to get up. + +When I was dressed I found my way down endless blowy corridors, for the +doors at the ends are always kept open, to the room of the girl who had +called me. She looked at my fur coat and said it would get spoilt. I +replied with great truth that it was past spoiling, but she took it off +me, whipped my cap from my head, and the girls proceeded to dress me. +They pulled a leather cap with ear-pieces down on my head and stuffed me +into woolly jackets and wound my neck up in a comforter and finished up +with a huge leather coat and a pair of fur gloves like bear's paws, so +that when all was done I couldn't bend and had to be hoisted quite stiff +up to the front of the ambulance. + +But first we all went into the kitchen, where part of the domestic staff +sits up all night to prepare food for the night drivers. There we drank +the loveliest cocoa I ever met, the sort the spoon would stand up in, +piping hot, out of huge bowls. Then my driver and the section leader for +the night led me across the soaking park to where, in almost total +darkness, girls were busy with their ambulances. I was hoisted up beside +my driver and endeavoured clumsily with my bear's paws to fasten the +canvas flap back across the side as I was bidden. I may say that I felt +extraordinarily clumsy amongst these girls, most of whom could have put +me in their pockets. They knew so exactly what to do, their movements +were all so perfectly adjusted to their needs, they knew where +everything was, while I fumbled for steps and hoped for the best.... +They made me feel, in the beautiful way they shepherded me, that I was a +silly useless female and that they were grave chivalrous young men; they +watched over me with just that matter-of-fact care. + +To me it was all wonderful, that experience. To the girls, who do it +every night, every alternate fortnight, year in, year out, the thrill of +it has naturally gone long since; the wonder is that to them all remains +the pity of it. We swung out of the park into the road. There was no +moon, the stars were mostly hidden by the heavy clouds, the sleet blew +in gusts against the wind screen. We went at a good pace, bound for a +Canadian hospital, and then for a station beyond E----, where the train +was waiting, for this was what is called an "evacuation" that I was +going to see. No train of wounded was due in that night, and the +Convoy's business was to take men who were being sent elsewhere from the +hospitals to the train. + +We stopped in front of a shadow hospital, set in a town of shadow-huts, +and a door opened to show an oblong of orange light, and send a paler +shaft widening out into the night towards the sleek side of our +ambulance. + +We heard the men being placed in the ambulance, the word was given, and +again we set off through the night, this time so slowly, so carefully, +for we carried that which must not be jarred one hair's breadth more +than could be helped. We crept along the roads, past the pines that +showed as patches of denser blackness against the sky, past the +sand-dunes that glimmered ghostly, past the blots of shadow made by +every shrub and tree-trunk, and behind and before us crawled other +ambulances, laden even as we. + +The station was wrapped in darkness, save for a hanging light here and +there, and an occasional uncurtained window in the waiting train. We +drew up under a light, where a sergeant was waiting. + +"Four from No. 7 Canadian," said my driver crisply. The sergeant +repeated, looked at a list he carried and marked our cases off it duly, +then told us the number of the compartment where we should stop. The +ambulance slid on, very slowly, beside the train and slowly came to +rest. + +I could see into the white-painted interior of the train, could see the +shelves running along its sides, and on the shelves, making oblong +shapes of darkness against all the white, men laid straightly ... in +front of us the Red Cross orderlies were sliding men down on stretchers +from the shelves of an ambulance, slipping them out, carrying them up +into the train and packing them on the shelves like fragile and precious +parcels. + +And suddenly it seemed to me there was something profoundly touching +about the sight of a man lying flat and helpless, shoved here and there, +in spite of all the care and kindness with which it was accomplished. It +is a thing wrong in essence, it seems an outrage on Nature--I got an odd +feeling that there was something wrong and unnatural about the mere +posture of lying-down that I never thought of before. The world seemed +suddenly to have become deformed, as a monster is deformed who is born +distorted. It shouldn't be possible to slide men on to shelves like +this.... + +The girl at the wheel pushed back the little shutter set in the front of +the ambulance and we looked into the dimly-lit interior. I could see the +crowns of four heads, the jut of brow beyond them, the upward peak of +the feet under the grey blankets, pale hands, one pair thin as a +child's, that lay limply along the edge of the stretchers. + +The orderlies came to the open door, one man mounted within, and the top +stretcher from one side was slipped along its grooves and disappeared, +tilted into the night. The boy on the top stretcher the other side +turned his head languidly and watched--I could see a pale cheek, +foreshortened from where I sat, a sweep of long dark eyelashes, the +curve of the drooping upper lip. His turn came, and, passive, he too was +slid out, then the two men below were carried away and up into the +train. The ambulance was empty. + +We turned in a circle over the muddy yard and started off again, +stopping again by the sergeant to get our orders. + +"Number 4," said the sergeant, and we swung, once more at a good pace, +along the heavy roads, took fresh turnings about and about in the city +of hospital huts, and drew up at Number 4. + +Again we were loaded, and again we crept back along the roads where we +had a few minutes before gone so swiftly, meeting empty cars, keeping in +line behind those laden like ourselves. Again we slowed down by the +waiting sergeant to say, "Two stretchers and two sitters from Four." He +echoed us, and we crept on to the appointed carriage and stopped. So it +went on through a couple of hours, ambulance after ambulance swiftly +leaving the station, slowly coming back, all drawing up gently by the +train, each, opened, making a faint square of light in the velvet +darkness. And then, at last, when it was all over, the return, swift +again, towards the camp. + +We bumped along the road, the dim pines falling away into the shadows +behind, a very mild funnel of light showing us a scrap of the way before +us and of hedge on either side, the twigs of it perpetually springing +out palely to die away once more. The wind was behind us and the screen +clear; far ahead of us on the road was an empty ambulance with its +curtains drawn back, bare but for its empty stretchers and dark +blankets, which made, in the pale glow of the white-painted interior, a +sinister Face--two hollow eyes and a wide mouth--that fled through the +night, always keeping the same distance ahead, grimacing at me, like an +image of the Death's Head of War.... I was glad when it swung round a +turning and was lost to us. + +We drove into the unrelieved darkness of the convoy park and drew up +with precision in our place, I wrestled again with the flap, and we got +out into the wet sleet, half-snow, half-rain. My driver covered up the +bonnet with tarpaulin, turned off the lights, and we went across to the +kitchen. It was half-past three, and we were the first to come back; we +asked for bowls of soup and stood sipping them and munching sandwiches +that lay ready cut in piles upon the table. + +Then, one after another, the drivers entered ... pulling off their great +gloves as they came, stamping the snow from their boots. They stood +about, drinking from their steaming bowls, bright-eyed, apparently +untired, throwing little quick scraps of talk to each other--about the +slowness of "St. John's" on this particular night, who hadn't their +cases ready and kept one or two ambulances "simply ages"; or the engine +trouble developed by one car which still kept it out somewhere on the +road. And I stood and listened and watched them, and I received an +impression of extraordinary beauty. + +These girls, with their leather caps coming down to their brows and over +their ears, looked like splendid young airmen, their clear, bold faces +coming out from between the leather flaps. They were not pretty, they +were touched with something finer, some quality of radiance only +increased by their utter unconsciousness of it. Each girl, with her +clear face, her round, close head, her stamping feet and strong, cold +hands, seemed so intensely alive within the dark globe of the night, +that her life was heightened to a point not earthly, as though she were +a visitant from the snows or fields I had not seen, fields Olympian.... +And as each came swinging in--"_vera incessu patuit dea_...." + +I could have wished them there for ever, like some sculptured frieze, so +lovely was the rightness and the inspiration of it. + +But I went to my bed, and one of the goddesses insisted on refilling my +hot-water bag, though I assured her it would be quite well as it was, +and I was unwound from my swaddling clothes and left to dream. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER" + + +Since the beginning of things women have been mixed up in war, and it is +only as the world has become more civilised (if in view of the present +one can make that assertion) that their place in it has been questioned. +The whole question of the civilian population has taken on a different +aspect since the outbreak of this war, owing to the extraordinary and +unprecedented penalties attached to the civilian status by Germany, but +the sub-division labelled "Women" has perhaps undergone more revision +than any. It has undergone so much revision, in fact, that women have, +in large masses, ceased to be civilians and are ranked as the Army. + +If it be frankly conceded that it is as natural for women to want to get +to the war as men, one clears the way for profitable discussion without +wasting time while the outworn epithets of "unwomanly" and +"sensation-hunters" are flung through the air to the great obscuring +thereof. The delight in danger for its own sake is common to all human +beings, to the young as an intoxicant, to the old as a drug. It is not +the least of the tragedies of woman that this is a delight in which she +is so seldom able to indulge. + +When the war broke, everyone wanted to go and see what it was like, and +it is merely useless to observe that this was treating it as a huge +picnic. Before the tightening-up process began, in the wonderful days +when the war was still fluid, it was possible to get out to the +front--the real front--on all sorts of excuses. The tightening-up was +necessary, and all too slow, but let us not, because of that, fall into +the error of calling the instinct which urged non-combatants "mere" +curiosity, as though that were not the greatest of the gifts of the +gods, without which nothing is done. + +Among these non-combatants who wanted to see the war were many women, +and if, mixed with their patriotism and desire to help, went a streak of +that love of danger which is no disgrace to a man--why, I maintain that +it is no disgrace to a woman either, but as natural an instinct as that +which drives one to a wayside orchard if one is hungry. + +There is nothing sooner slaked, for the time being, than this inherent +love of danger. Men who wanted the fun of it at the beginning of the war +are heartily sick of it now, though they wouldn't be out of it for +worlds. But most of the women haven't been allowed enough danger to get +sick of it, and so, in patches of young women you meet working in +France, the old craving still lifts its head. I came across a delightful +streak of it at T----, the oldest big convoy in France. + +The garage, over which the girls live, for their camp is still +a-building, is set in the eye of the cold winter winds on the top of a +hill overlooking the sea. It was snowing heavily as I drove up, great +fat flakes of snow that wove and interwove in the air in the way that +only snowflakes can, so that sometimes they look as though they were +falling upwards. The long line of the wooden garage showed dark in the +background, in the space before it the ambulances stood about, but the +girls were fox-trotting in couples all about them, their big rubber +boots shuffling up little clouds of snow; on the head of one girl was +swathed a greenish-blue handkerchief, which made a lovely note of colour +against the swirling whiteness. + +I was taken in through the garage, where two drivers were painting their +cars--for all painting is done by the girls, sometimes with unexpected +effects, as on one car which I saw, where "Eve" from the _Tatler_ and +her little dog were depicted in front of the body--and up a flight of +wooden stairs with an out-of-doors landing on top, to the cubicles, +which opened off on either side of the open-ended passage for the whole +length of the building. Here, in one of the little bedrooms for two, we +had a meal of cocoa and cake, known as the "elevener," for the obvious +reason that it is consumed at eleven every morning. It was all quite +different from my evening at the convoy at E----, but equally +stimulating. + +The great plaint of the girls was that they weren't allowed nearer the +fighting line, and I heard a story of how, in the early days, two cars +had managed to get right through to Poperinghe, when that town was the +centre of the Boche's attentions, by the simple expedient of the +girl-drivers turning up their coat collars, pulling their peaked caps +well down over their eyes, and just going ahead. They had a lovely time +in Poperinghe and lunched under shell-fire, and when the military, +including the Staff, were sitting in cellars, the "Chaufferettes" +sallied forth and bought picture post-cards. + +"It's a shame they won't let us go up to the line now----" + +"Yes, indeed," put in another very seriously, as though she were adding +the last uncontrovertible proof to the perfidy of the authorities--"They +let the sisters get shelled, so why shouldn't they let us?" + +Isn't that a delightful spirit, and, I beg leave to insist, a perfectly +natural and proper one? Any decent human being would like to be +shelled--who hasn't been shelled too much. It is like being in love--a +thing that ought to happen at least once to everybody. + +One of my hostesses was a violinist and plays at all the concerts for +the wounded which take place thereabouts. I asked her whether she didn't +find the work ruination to her fingers for the violin, but all she said +carelessly was that they had been ruined for three years now, but it +didn't matter, as anyway she couldn't have practised even if she had the +time, since there were always some girls trying to sleep. + +And what do the local French people think of these young girls in their +midst, who work like men and are out in all weathers and drive the +soldiers wounded in the great common cause? They are quite charming to +them, and indeed, when they first came, the French met them at every +station with bouquets of flowers, so that the girls, pleased and +embarrassed, English fashion, had a triumphal progress. But there are +some of the French neighbours who think the life must be very hard on +the poor things, and when, a little while ago, the Convoy organised a +paper chase, the popular belief was that the hares were escaping from +the rigours of life.... When the panting hares asked wayfaring traps for +a lift, it was refused them, as, though the kindly drivers had every +sympathy with the projected escape, they were not going to assist them +to defy authority! + +The hardships which this Convoy had undergone I did not hear about from +them, but from their Commandant. She told me of three weeks at the +beginning of things, when there were no fires, no hot water, except a +little always simmering for pouring into the radiators of the cars when +there came a night call--for the snow was frozen on the ground all those +three weeks and the water in the jugs was ice. The girls didn't talk +about that because they were not interested in it, but neither would +they talk about one other thing, though for a very different reason--and +that was of the time when, after the great German gas attacks at +Nieuport, they had to drive the gassed men who came on the hospital +trains.... You can't get them now to describe what that was like, nor +would you have tried, warned by the sudden change of voice in which they +even mentioned it. + +There was one point in which this Convoy seemed to me to touch the +extreme of abnegation attained by the G.S.V.A.D.'s. I had seen much +earlier in my visit a G.S.V.A.D. Convoy, but have not mentioned it +because I saw it before I had really grasped essentials, and it appeared +to me then just a plain Convoy, and as the bare facts of it were not as +spectacular as those relating to the Fannies, I chose the latter to +write about. + +The G.S.V.A.D.'s, as I have said, rank as privates, and among them are +workers of every kind--scrubbers, cooks, dispensers, clerks, motor +drivers. This G.S.V.A.D. convoy which I had seen was made up of girls +who had exchanged from V.A.D. convoys, mostly from this very one at +T---- where I now was; and so they happened to be all friends and all +girls of gentle birth. But when I saw their quarters--in a couple of +tall French houses that had been converted to the purpose--I was very +upset by the terrible fact that the girls had to share bedrooms. In all +the camps I had seen since, both of Fannies and V.A.D.'s, each girl had +her own tiny room which she cherished as her own soul--which, indeed, is +what it amounts to. And the Waac officers, of course, have their own +private rooms, though the girls sleep in dormitories. This convoy at +T---- was the only voluntary one I had come across where the inestimable +privilege of solitude was missing, though that will be put right when +the new camp is built. + +And here I may mention that, deeply as I admire all the girls who are +working so splendidly in France, I think perhaps my meed of admiration +brims highest for those members of the G.S.V.A.D.'s who are gently born, +for this very reason of the sleeping accommodation. Let us be frank, and +admit that for the generality of working girls, such as the Waacs and a +large proportion of the G.S.V.A.D.'s, it is not nearly so great a +hardship to sleep in dormitories as it is for girls who have, as a +matter of course, always been accustomed to privacy. It is not so bad in +the case of members of a G.S. convoy such as that I have mentioned, +where the girls are all friends, but what of those ladies who live in +the big camps and sleep in long huts with other girls of every class, +all, doubtless, decent good girls, but, in the nature of things, often +girls with whom any ground of meeting must be limited to the barest +commonalities of life? Also sometimes those in authority--those who are +and always were professionals, not amateurs--have been known to use the +power given to them, by the inferior rating of these girls, to make them +rather miserable. + +Personally, I have long had a theory, which will doubtless bring down on +me howls of rage from those who will say I am decrying the most noble of +professions, that women are not meant to be nurses. It brings out all +that is worst in them. The love of routine for its own sake, that deadly +snare to which women and Government officials succumb so much more +easily than do men, is fostered in them. And so is the love of authority +for their own sakes, which is almost worse. It has taken nothing less +than this way to show what splendid creatures nurses are under their +starched aprons. In times of peace only amateur women should be nurses; +for it may be observed that the V.A.D. nurses, though they have had long +enough to do it in, have not developed the subtle disease of nursitis. +Evidently nursing is a thing, like love-making, which should never +become a profession. + +I was glad to have seen all the different convoys I had, because no two +had been to me alike, and to each I am indebted for a differing +expression of the same vision, which is the vision splendid of a duty +undertaken gladly and sustained with courage. From my first convoys--the +Fannies and the G.S.V.A.D.'s--I got the wonderful facts of it, at the +V.A.D. Convoy at E---- I caught that side of it which I was most glad of +all to encounter, and at the V.A.D. Convoy at T---- I found that +delightful spirit of sheer joy in danger which is too precious to be +allowed to die out of the world just because there happens to be, at +present, such a great deal too much danger let loose upon it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +REST + + +The snow danced in a fine white mist over the ploughed fields, and drove +perpetually against the northerly sides of the tall bare tree-trunks +that lined the way for miles, hardly finding a hold upon the smooth +flanks of the planes, but sinking into the rough-barked limes till they +looked dappled with their brown ridges and the white veining, and oddly +as though covered with the pelt of some strange animal. High in the web +of bare branches, the clumps of mistletoe showed as filigree nests for +some race of fairy birds. + +Gracious country this, for all the desolate whiteness; it lay in great +rolling slopes with drifts of purplish elms in the folds, and on the +levels winding steel-dark streams along whose banks the upward-springing +willows burned an ardent rust colour. And as the car rocked and bounded +along and the wind screen first starred in one place, then in another, +then fell out altogether, one got a better and better view of it all. + +What a wonderful people the French are for agriculture.... Hardly a man +did I see all the days I motored about and about, but I saw mile after +mile of cultivated land, the sombrely-clad women or boys guiding the +slow ploughs, the rough-coated horses pulling patiently--white horses +that looked pale against the bare earth, but a dark yellow when the snow +came to show up the tarnishing that the service of man brings upon +beasts. Several times I saw English soldiers ploughing, and rejoiced. + +We came into the town that was our bourn in the grey of the evening, +passed the grey glimmer of the river between its grey stone quays, +passed the grey miracle of the cathedral, and then, in the rapidly +deepening dusk, turned in through great wrought iron gates into a grey +courtyard. + +It may have been gathered that, much as I admire both their practical +perfection and their spiritual significance, I am no lover of camps, +which seem to me among all things man-created upon God's earth about the +most depressing. I had lived and moved and had my being in camps it +seemed to me for countless ages, the edges of my soul were frayed with +camps. From the moment of walking into the old house at R---- a +wonderful sense of rest that brooded over the place enveloped me. The +thing had an atmosphere, impossible to exaggerate, though very difficult +to convey, but I shall never forget the miracle that house was to me. + +It was a Hostel for the Relations of Wounded, and there are in France +at present some half-dozen of these houses, supported by the Joint War +Committee of the Red Cross and the Order of St. John, and staffed by +V.A.D.'s. At all of them the relations of badly wounded are lodged and +fed free of charge, while cars meet them and also convey them to and +from the hospital. This much I knew as plain facts, what I had not been +prepared for was the breath of exquisite pleasure that emanated from +this house. + +The house was originally a butter market, and the entrance room, set +about with little tables where the relations have their meals, has one +side entirely of glass; the lounge beyond, which is for the staff, is +glass-roofed, while that opening on the right hand of the dining-place, +the lounge for the relations, has long windows all down the side; so it +will be seen that light and air are abundant on the ground floor of the +Hostel in spite of the fact that it looks on to a courtyard. + +From the relations' lounge, with its slim vermilion pillars ringed about +with seats like those round tree-trunks, there goes up a curving +staircase of red tiles, with a carved baluster of oak greyish with age, +a griffon sitting upright upon the newel. Up this staircase I was taken +to my room, and there the completion of peace came upon me. + +One could see at a glance it would be quiet, beautifully quiet. Its +window gave on to the sloping grey flanks of pointed roofs and showed a +filigree spire pricking the pale bubble of the wintry sky, its walls +were panelled from floor to ceiling, its hangings were of white and +vermilion, its floor dark and polished, and on the wide stone hearth +burned a wood fire. And, to crown all, after tiny huts, it was so big a +room that the corners were filled with gracious shadow; and the +firelight flickered up and down on the panelling and glimmered in the +polished floor and set the shadows quivering. I lay back in a +vermilion-painted chair and felt steeped in the bath of restfulness that +the place was. + +The whole house was very perfectly "got-up," the maximum of effect +having been attained with the minimum of expense, though not of labour; +it all having been achieved under the direction of a former +superintendent with a genius for decoration, who is now V.A.D. Area +Commandant and still lives at the Hostel. The evening I arrived there, +she and the staff were busy stenciling a buff bedspread with blue +galleons in full sail, varied by gulls. Everything is exceedingly +simple, there is no fussy detail, nothing to catch dirt. The walls are +all panelled, and painted either ivory or dark brown; the furniture is +of wicker and plain wood, painted in gay colours--rich blues and +vermilion; the tablecloths are of red or blue checks. In the spacious +bedrooms are simple colour schemes--in one there are thick, straight +curtains of flaming orange, in another of a deep blue, in another of +red and white checked material. The floors are of polished wood or red +tiles strewn with rugs; vivid-coloured cushions lie in the easy chairs; +and set about in earthen jars are great branches of mimosa and lilac +from the South, boughs of pussy-willow, the tender velvety grey ovals +blossoming into fragile yellow dust; all along the sills are indoor +window-boxes filled with hyacinths of pink and white and a cold faint +blue. + +On the walls the only decoration is that of posters, and these create an +extraordinary effect as of a series of windows, opening upon different +climes and strange worlds, windows set in ivory walls. Here is an old +Norman castle, grey against a sky of luminous yellow, there a stream in +Brittany which you can almost hear brawling past the plane-trees with +their freckled trunks, while beyond it, through another window, you see +a pergola of roses whose deep red has turned wine-coloured under the +moonlight, and beyond that again, the white cliffs of England go down +into a peacock sea. And, in the Red Cross dining-room, a poilu, his +mouth open on a yell of encouragement, charges with uplifted hands, +looking over his shoulder at you with bright daring eyes, and you do not +need the inscription underneath of "_On les aura!_" to guess what spirit +urges him. + +This, then, is the setting for one of the most merciful of the works of +the Red Cross. That it is appreciated is shown by the fact that at +Christmas, at this house, with its staff of Superintendent, cook, +parlourmaid, housemaid and "tweeny," with one chauffeuse, there were +forty relations of wounded staying. The average number of people for +whom Army and Red Cross rations are drawn three times a week is +twenty-five, but for these rations as for fifteen are drawn, as the food +supply is too generously proportioned for a household consisting so +largely of women. But it will be seen that with a constantly fluctuating +population the task of housekeeping is no easy one, though it is tackled +by the voluntary staff with gaiety and courage. + +They have troubles of their own, too, the members of that staff, and in +the big kitchen, where among the dishes on the table a pink hyacinth +bloomed, the fair-haired cook I saw so busily working was back from a +leave in England that was to have been her marriage-leave, had not her +fiance been killed the day before he was to join her. Now she is amongst +her pots and pans again and smiling still, as I can testify. The +"tweeny," who also describes herself as a boot-boy, is a young +war-widow. Things like these are almost beyond the admiration of mortals +less severely tested. + +The material difficulties are not the worst in a hostel of this kind, +which in its very nature presupposes grief. The relations, of course, +are of all kinds, after every pattern of humanity, and each makes his or +her emotional demand, if not in active appeal to sympathy, yet in the +strain that it entails on the sensitively organised to see others in +sorrow--and unless you are sensitive you are no good for work such as +this. This hostel is blessed in its Superintendent, an American V.A.D. +worker of a personality so _simpatica_--there is no adequate English for +what I mean--that you are aware of it at first meeting with her; and she +is a woman of the world, which is not always the case with women +workers, however excellent. + +Shortly before I came to the Hostel a very young wife arrived to see her +husband, who lay desperately ill in one of the hospitals. When he died +she became as a thing distraught and could not be left, and the +Superintendent even had to have her to sleep in her room with her all +the time she was there. Others, again, are aloof in their sorrow, though +it is none the less tragic for that. The first question on the lips of +the Staff when the chauffeuse comes back from taking the relatives to +the hospital is, "Was it good news?" + +It was good news for the couple who arrived on the same evening that I +did, the mother and father of a young officer who was very badly +injured. I saw them next morning in the lounge, sitting quietly on +either side of the centre-stove, a business man and his wife, as neat, +he in his serge suit, she in her satin blouse and carefully folded lace +and smooth grey hair, as if they had not been travelling for a day and a +night on end, racked by anxiety, though you could see the deep lines +that the strain had left. He looked at me with those patient eyes of the +elderly which hold the same unconscious pathos as those of animals, and +talked in a low quiet voice, and it seemed almost an impertinence of a +total stranger to assure these gentle, dignified people of her gladness +that their only son was safe, yet how glad one is that any one of these +brief contacts in passing should be of happiness! It is so impossible +not to weep with them that weep that it is a keen joy to be able to +rejoice with them that do rejoice. + +"It's so free here ..." he told me, "that's what the wife and I like so. +No rules and regulations, you can do just what you like as though you +were in your own home ... no feeling that as you don't pay you've got to +do what you're told." And there was expressed the spirit of the Hostel +as I discovered it. + +There are no rules, and it is always impressed upon the Superintendents +that the relations are not obliged to go there, that they do so because +they choose to, and must be treated as honoured guests. In the +dining-room there are little tables as at an hotel, so that the +different parties can keep to themselves if they prefer it; there are +no times for going out or coming in, no times for "lights out," no need +to have a meal in if the visitor mentions he is going out for it. The +relations who stay at these hostels are guests in every sense of the +word, and there is not one trace of red tape or the faintest feeling of +obligation about the whole thing. + +And that must have been what I had felt in the very air of the place +when I arrived, what stole with so precious a balm over me who had been +in camp after camp, institution after institution. This place, with its +quiet walls and its grey shutters wing-wide upon its grey walls, was not +only beautiful and rich with that richness only age can give, it was +instinct as well with freedom and with peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL QUESTION + + +I have left till the last what to some people will be the dullest and +what is certainly the least spectacular of all the work done by the +women in France, but what is to me perhaps the most wonderful and +admirable of all. I mean that of the Domestic Staffs. + +For there is something thrilling about driving wounded, something +eternally picturesque about nursing them, but there is no glamour about +being a general servant.... A general servant, year in, year out, and +with no wages at that, for I talk of the voluntary staffs, girls of +gentle birth and breeding who deliberately undertake to wash dishes and +clean floors and empty slops day after day. I think heroism can no +higher go, and I am not trying to be funny; I mean it. + +All the voluntary camps I had seen, all the hostels, the rest stations, +and many hospitals, are staffed by voluntary domestic help; and the +girls they wait upon, the drivers and secretaries and such like, are +eager in recognition of them. But that seems to me about all the +recognition they do get; they get no "snappy pars," no photographs in +the picture papers, no songs are sung of them, no reward is theirs in +the shape of medal or ribbon, nothing but the sense of a dish properly +cleaned or rugs duly swept under. I consider that there ought to be a +special medal for girls who have slaved as general servants during the +war, without a thrill of romance to support them; a "Skivvy's Ribbon" as +one of them laughingly suggested to me when I propounded the idea. + +Take, for example, the Headquarters of the British Red Cross, at the +Hotel Christol at Boulogne, to which I returned on my homeward way, as I +had come to it on landing. The staff, counting the Commissioner and +officials, the clerks, typists, secretaries, and Post Office girls, +amount to about a hundred and forty-five people, and the house staff +number seventeen and are all V.A.D.'s. The Hotel Christol is also the +headquarters for all Red Cross people going on leave or arriving +therefrom via Boulogne, and all have to report there; nearly all want a +meal, many want a bed. + +The men-workers and many of the women, such as V.A.D. Commandants, etc., +live out in billets in the town, but the manageress and her assistant, +the Post Office Commandant, the girl driver of the mail-car with her +orderly (these two girls drive about sixty miles daily with the mails), +the girls of the telephone exchange and the rest of the Post Office +girls, all "live in," and in addition to the casual Red Cross workers +who may appeal for a bed any time there are the relations of wounded who +have been put up there whenever possible, though now a hostel is being +opened in Boulogne for the purpose. All the people working in the house +and all Red Cross workers arriving by boat are entitled to take their +meals at the Christol, as are all Red Cross workers in Boulogne, both +officers and privates, and the average number of meals served is 2,500 a +week. Four or five girls act as waitresses in the dining-room, and three +are always in the pantry, which must never be left for a moment during +the day; so it will be seen that the headquarters of the Red Cross is a +sort of hotel, except that nobody pays. + +There are French servants to do the roughest work, but the girls have +plenty to do without that. The house staff begin work at seven in the +morning; at seven-thirty in the evening they start to turn out the +forty-two offices, which they sweep and dust every day. They wash all +the tea-things (not the dinner-things), and clean all the silver and +glass, they make the beds and do all the waiting. A pretty good list of +occupations, is it not, carried out on such a huge scale? + +The girls are well looked after, for it must not be forgotten that some +of them are not more than eighteen, and their parents in England have a +right to demand that these children should be at once guarded and +cheered. No Red Cross girl is allowed out after half-past nine in a +restaurant, and none is ever allowed to dine out unaccompanied by +another girl. But when a friend of a girl passes through Boulogne, then +it is permitted that she and another girl may go and dine with the +officer in question, always provided they are back by nine-thirty. For +superiors are merciful and human creatures these days, and there is +always the thought that the girl may never see that friend again. And +Heaven--and the superior--knows that these girls need and deserve a +little relaxation and enjoyment. + +And would you not think that to girls who work as these do and behave so +well would at least be given the understanding and respect of all of us +who do so much less? Yet how often one hears careless remarks of censure +or--worse--of belittlement. That to other nations our ways may need +explaining is understandable, but we should indeed be ashamed that any +amongst ourselves fail in comprehension. + +What do the French think of our women? That is a question that +inevitably arises in the mind of anyone who knows the differences in +French and English education. Let me show the thing as I think it is, by +means of a metaphor. + +It is universally conceded that marriage is a more difficult proposition +than friendship, that it is more a test of affection to live under one +roof and share the daily commonplaces of life than it is to meet +occasionally when one can make a feast of the meeting. Yet this is not +to say that marriage is the less admirable state, but only to allow that +it is one requiring greater sacrifices, greater tact, and--greater +affection. Therefore, when it is admitted that the presence in France +for nearly four years of English soldiers, English civilians on +war-work, and the consequent erection of whole temporary townships for +their accommodation, is a greater test--if you will a greater +strain--for the Entente than if intercourse had been limited to an +occasional interchange of a handful of people, one is not saying +anything derogatory either to French hosts or English guests, but merely +frankly conceding that more depth of affection and understanding is +necessary than would otherwise have been the case. To superficial +relationships, superficial knowledge, but to the big partnerships of +life, complete understanding. And, if that is never quite possible in +this world, at least let the corner where knowledge cannot come be +filled by tolerance. + +England is no longer on terms of mere friendly intercourse with France; +the bond is deeper, more indissoluble.... And as in marriage the closest +bond of all is the birth of children, so in this pact of nations the +greatest bond is the loss of children--lost for the same cause upon the +same soil.... + +With a bond as deep as this--a bond always acknowledged and given its +meed of recognition by the most thoughtful brains and sensitive +hearts--yet, as in marriage, there are bound to be minor irritations, +points, not of meeting, but of conflict. Trifles, indeed, these points, +compared with the magnitude of the bond which unites, but nevertheless +trifles which would be better adjusted than ignored. + +In the first place, we must recognise that though the things which unite +us, our common ideals, our common needs, are far stronger than any +difference in our modes of thought, yet those differences exist, and +that, in marriage, it is often said that it is the little things which +count.... Heaven forbid that we should so lose sense of proportion as to +say it when the matter in hand is the marriage of nations, but +nevertheless it is well not entirely to forget it.... And, of all the +differences in customs between us, there is probably none more marked +than in our way of treating what is known--loosely and with considerable +banality--as the "sex-problem." This is not the place to discuss those +differences, though, as one who has known and loved France all her life, +I may mention that, personally, I see much to admire in the French +system and could wish that we emulated it, but that is neither here nor +there at the moment. + +France has probably evolved for the happiness and welfare of her +womenkind the sort of life which suits best with their temperament and +circumstances. Women, like water, find their own level, and no one who +knows France, and knows the devotion, the business capacity, and the +good works of her women, imagines them to be the butterfly creatures +that English fancy used to paint them twenty or thirty years ago. As a +matter of fact, the present writer had occasion, two winters ago, to +make a close study of the varied scope of women's work in France--the +hospitals for training of _femmes du monde_, the schools like Le Foyer, +for the training of young girls of the upper classes to help their +poorer sisters, etc., etc., all works carried on unostentatiously long +before the war broke upon us and proved their usefulness. The +"butterfly" Frenchwoman underwent, before the war, a far more serious +social training than did the happy-go-lucky English girl, and was better +equipped in consequence, with a knowledge of economic conditions, than +the untrained Englishwoman could be. + +But we too have our quality, and I rather think it is to be found in the +greater freedom which we are allowed. We were not so well trained, but +freedom stepped into the place of custom, and gave the necessary +attitude of mind--that unprejudiced, untrammelled attitude which is +essential to the quick grasping of a fresh _metier_. That is where our +method--or, if you prefer it, our lack of method--helped us, even as +their training helped the French. And the French, with their +extraordinary facility of vision, do, I think, understand that we have +simply pushed our freedom to its logical and legitimate outcome, that we +could not be expected, after being accustomed, for many years past, to +be on terms of simple easy friendship with men as with our own sex, +above all, after working side by side with them since this war began, we +could not be expected to say that we could not work with them in France, +though we could in England, or that perhaps this girl would, and that +girl couldn't.... + +We naturally proceeded to act _en masse_ as we had acted individually, +to do on a large scale what had been done on a small, to manipulate +great bodies of women where before a few friends had worked together. In +every large body of persons there are bound to be one or two individuals +who fail to come up to the required standard, but that does not alter +the principle that what can safely be done in small quantities can +safely be done in large, provided the conditions are altered to scale. + +And that is what we are doing, and what our Government is helping us to +do; that is what our Women's Army and our voluntary workers in France +are--the expression, on a large scale, of what bands of women have been +doing so successfully on a small scale since the beginning of the +war--helping, and even replacing the men. And just as, with our +peculiar training and mode of thought, it is possible for the average +Englishwoman to eliminate sex as a factor in the scheme of things, so it +is possible to eliminate it in greater masses. In other words, it is +perfectly possible, to men and girls brought up with the English method +of free friendly intercourse, to work side by side, to meet, to walk +together, and to remain--merely friends. Whether that is a good thing or +not is another point altogether, as it is whether it makes for charm in +a woman.... Certainly no woman in this world competes with a Frenchwoman +for charm. It is as recognised as an Englishwoman's complexion--and +considerably more lasting! + +Probably it is only ourselves and the Americans among the races of the +world who could have instituted such an experiment as that of our +Women's Army, but there is among the nations one which is supreme in +"flair," in sympathy, and a certain ability to comprehend intellectually +what it might not understand emotionally, and that nation is France. + +I am confident that it will never have to be said that when Englishwomen +sacrificed so much--and to a Frenchwoman one does not need to point out +what a sacrifice it is when a woman risks youth and looks in hard +unceasing work--that Frenchwomen failed to understand them or to +attribute motives to them other than those that have animated +themselves in their own labours throughout the war. + +That it must sometimes look odd to them one knows so well; how can it be +otherwise? They see the girls, khaki-clad, out walking without +"Tommies," hear the sounds of music and dancing coming from the +recreation huts, where the girls are allowed to invite the men, and +_vice versa_. Yet, if you investigate, you will find out that they are +of an extraordinary simplicity, these girls and men, in their +intercourse, in their earnest dancing, taught them by instructors from +our Young Men's Christian Association, inspired by nothing more heady +than lemonade, and chaperoned by the women-officers, who have attained a +mixture of authority and motherly supervision over every individual girl +that reminds me of nothing so much as the care, born of a sort of divine +cunning, of a very dear and clever Mother Superior at a convent I once +stayed at in France. For the interesting point for both the French and +ourselves to note is that in the treatment of our Women's Army in France +we have taken a leaf out of their book. We look after the girls with +something of that love and care which surrounds a girl in France. + +For many of the Women's Army are working girls, who have never been +guarded in their lives, whose parents had probably, after the +lower-class English way, very little influence with them, and who, +though good, honest, rough girls, were free to roam the streets of their +native towns with their friends every evening once their work was over. +Now, for what is for many of them the first time in their lives, they +are being watched and guarded in a manner that is more French than +English, and which I find admirable. As for their walks, their +friendships with men, the personal observation of the acute French will +show them that it is merely our Anglo-Saxon way, and the official +statistics will prove to any doubters how well both the girls and the +men can be trusted to behave themselves. We are a cold nation if you +like, but there it is--it has its excellences, if not its charms. + +So much for fundamental differences, which, when intelligence and +sympathy go out to meet them, become merely points on which temperaments +agree to differ amicably, each giving its meed of admiration to the +other. And for minor matters, little things of different customs only, +that nevertheless, occasionally, in the strain of this war, ruffle even +friends, I would say something like this, which is in the hearts of us +all.... + +France--dear lovely France, to so many of us adored for many years, who +has stood to us for the romance of the world, we know that in many +things our ways are not your ways and never will be, nor would we wish +it otherwise. To each nation her distinctiveness, or she loses her +soul. But, when those ways of ours seem to you most alien, say to +yourself: "This is only England's differing way of doing what we are +doing, of fighting for what we are fighting for--the saving of the right +to individualism, the right to be different...." To gain that we are all +having to become alike, just as to win freedom we are having for a time +to give it up, and the great thing to remember is that this terrible +coherent community life is being borne with only that eventually we may +all be free men once more. Let us, for all time, differ in our own ways, +rather than agree in the German! But also let us, while differing, +understand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NOTES AND QUERIES + + +On my last evening I sat and thought about the girls I had seen and +known, in greater and less degrees, in passing. And I saw them, not as +unthinking "sporting" young things, who were having a great adventure, +but as girls who were steadily sticking to their jobs, often without +enjoyment save that of knowledge of good work well done. And I thought +of those prophets who gloomily foretell that the women will never want +to drop into the background again--forgetful of the fact that where a +woman is is never a background to herself. I smiled as I thought of the +eagerness with which these hard workers in mud and snow and heat will +start buying pretty clothes again and going out to parties ... and I was +very thankful to know how unchangedly woman they had all remained, in +spite of the fact that they had had the strength to lay the privileges +and the fun of being a woman aside for a time. + +I remembered what the D. of T. had said to me when we discussed the +question of how the girls would settle down when it was all over, and +how he had thought that even if they did not marry all would be well, +because they would have had their adventure.... I remembered too how +that had seemed to me the correct answer at the time. Then later, when +that awful web of depression caught me, and the horror of the +school-girl conditions of life and all the apparent "brightness" had +choked me, I had all the more thought it true, but marvelled; later +still, when I caught glimpses of that wonderful spirit and that deep +sophistication which had so cheered me, I reversed the whole judgment +and thought there was nothing in it. + +Now, thinking it all over, it seemed to me that somewhere midway lay +Truth. These girls have had, in a certain sense, their adventure, but +when it is all over, they will have a reaction from it, and I believe +that reaction will be pleasant to them, that it will be the reaction, +and not the memory of adventure, which will content them. It is certain +that to anyone who has worked as these girls work a considerable period +of doing nothing in particular will be very acceptable. They will all +have to become themselves again, which will be interesting.... + +Dear, wonderful girls ... you who wash dishes and scrub and sweep, you +girls of the Women's Army who replace men and who do it so thoroughly, +you drivers who are out in all weathers, night and day, sometimes for a +week or more on end, who face hardships such as were faced in those +three weeks at T---- when there were no fires and no water, how glad I +am to have met you.... So I sat and thought, and then I picked up a copy +of _The Times_ which had just come over. And in the "Personal" column +this caught my eye: + +"Lady wants war-work, preferably motor-driving, from three to five p.m." + +And I saw that it was not only those far removed from the war who +misunderstood both what it demands and that which has arisen to meet +those demands. + +Do we not nearly all fail to realise the magnitude and import of what is +being done by these unspectacular workers behind the lines, who are yet +part of war itself, and daily and nightly strengthen the hands of the +fighters? Some of us in England realise as little as you in far-off +countries, and yet it should be our business to know, because the least +we can do is to understand so that we, in our much less fine way, can +help them a little, one tithe of the amount they help our fighting men. + +Not because of any desire of theirs for praise is it necessary--I never +saw a healthier disregard, amounting to a kindly contempt, for what +those at home think or don't think, than among the women working in +France--but because it is only by knowing that we can respond +generously enough to the needs of their work, and only by understanding +that we can save our own souls from that fat and contented ignorance +which induces a sleep uncommonly like death. + +Nor, as long as we listen to the girls themselves, are we in any danger +of thinking too much of them or of their work. Not a woman I met, +English or American, working in France, but said something like this, +and meant it: "What, after all, is anything we can do, except inasmuch +as it may help the men a little? How could we bear to do nothing when +the men are doing the most wonderful thing that has ever been done in +the world?" + + + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Note: + +Punctuation has been normalised. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sword of Deborah, by F. 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