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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77327 ***
+
+
+
+
+                              THE WORK OF
+                       THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
+
+
+                               AN ADDRESS
+
+                                GIVEN BY
+
+                              LADY LUGARD
+                      TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS
+                            MARCH 24th, 1915
+
+[Illustration: [Logo]]
+
+                                 LONDON
+
+                         G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
+
+                                  1915
+
+
+
+
+                            THE WORK OF THE
+                         WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
+
+[Illustration: [Logo]]
+
+
+I have been asked to speak to-day about the work of the War Refugees
+Committee.
+
+The work of the War Refugees Committee is intimately associated with
+what will, I believe, hereafter be regarded as one of the most acutely
+pathetic chapters of our island history. Because we are an island,
+because a stretch of sea lies between us and Europe, because, above all,
+we have a Navy which for a thousand years has known how to defend that
+strip of sea, we have been able, not for the first time in our history,
+to offer refuge to a people stricken and driven out from their proper
+home.
+
+There is no need for me to speak now of what Belgium has done—we all
+have the knowledge in our hearts. In the Titanic struggle in which we
+are engaged Belgium bore for a time the burden of the world, and the
+world can never forget, and never repay.
+
+We all remember the shock of horror with which we read the first
+accounts of the atrocities perpetrated at Visé and Liège. But we have
+almost forgotten that only a few days before the outbreak of this war
+our eyes were turned towards another theatre of disturbance, and the
+outbreak of civil war in Ireland was the catastrophe we feared. For a
+moment I must recall it in connection with the refugees, for, strange as
+it may seem, the War Refugees Committee is, in a sense, the lineal
+descendant of the Ulster Council.
+
+The preparations of Ulster in the early summer of last year were
+sufficiently public to be known to anyone who chose to be acquainted
+with them. Like most Irish Protestants, I was aware that in view of
+coming contingencies arrangements had been made for the removal of many
+thousands of women and children from the area which was likely to become
+a theatre of war. These arrangements had been made with great
+thoroughness. Registration and all other necessary forms had been
+prepared, transport had been organized and safe homes had been secured
+in England. The outbreak of European war mercifully averted the
+misfortune of war in Ireland, and when the news of the first atrocities
+came through from Belgium they suggested the idea, “Why not use the
+Ulster organization to get the Belgian women and children out if
+possible from under the German guns?” At that time we had of course no
+conception of the development which the Refugee movement was ultimately
+to take. The thought in my mind was mainly of women and children. I
+telegraphed to Captain Craig to ask whether, if such a scheme proved
+feasible, he would let me have the use of the Ulster organization. He
+telegraphed back immediately that everything they had was at my disposal
+for such a purpose. He sent me all their registration forms—forms which
+we are to-day using at the War Refugees Committee—and put me immediately
+in touch with people who had the necessary information. In twenty-four
+hours I had the embryo of an organization in my hands.
+
+But it was evidently necessary to change what I may call the “sentiment
+base.” The next step was to approach the Catholic Church and to ask of
+Cardinal Bourne that the Catholic institutions of Great Britain and
+Ireland might be circularized in order to ascertain how many homes of
+undoubted security could be placed at the disposal of Belgian refugees.
+I was received with a cordiality which, I would like to say here once
+for all, the Catholic Church has constantly maintained towards the
+movement. I was assured by Monsignor Bidwell, whom Cardinal Bourne
+deputed to discuss the matter with me, that assuming the movement to be
+properly organized and to be viewed with favour by the Government, the
+Catholic authorities would be very ready to help.
+
+With this amount of preparation I approached the Foreign Office, and was
+assured of the sympathy of Sir Edward Grey. The Local Government Board
+signified their approval, and the Foreign Office was good enough
+ultimately to arrange an interview for me with the Belgian Minister,
+directing me that in placing the scheme before him I was to inquire what
+steps his Government, in the event of their viewing the proposal with
+favour, would take to make the scheme known in Belgium. In accordance
+with these instructions I laid the scheme before the Comte de Lalaing,
+and in due course an answer was received from the Belgian Government
+accepting the proposal with gratitude, and saying that they would make
+the scheme known in Belgium, and would direct intending refugees to come
+to Ostend, whence they understood that we would take steps to bring them
+away.
+
+While these negotiations were in progress the position in Belgium was
+becoming every day more acute, and efforts which had already been
+started in other quarters to alleviate this distress were suddenly
+brought into line with my endeavour. Lord Lytton had begun collecting
+contributions towards the Belgian Relief Fund from exhibitors at the
+recent Brussels and Ghent Exhibitions. This had led Mr. Wintour, of the
+Exhibitions Branch of the Board of Trade, to pay a visit to Ostend,
+where the homeless refugees were already congregated in large numbers.
+On August 22nd I was informed by Mr. Reyntiens and Mr. Wintour that they
+had the promise of a transport, from the Admiralty, with which they were
+immediately going to fetch over refugees, and that they hoped to return
+on the following Monday with a ship-load. I asked Mr. Reyntiens how many
+they proposed to bring back. He said “As many as we can get—anything
+from 100 to 1,000.” To the inquiry “What do you propose to do with your
+refugees when you bring them back?” his reply was, in effect, “We leave
+that to you!” There was no time to discuss the matter; it was necessary
+for him to go at once and get his papers ready, and I was left on
+Saturday morning in full sympathy with the adventure, but with the
+knowledge that on Monday I might be expected to receive in England 1,000
+refugees.
+
+No Committee had as yet been formed. It was evident that between
+Saturday and Monday a Committee had to be created. I will not delay you
+with a relation of the details of that Saturday and Sunday afternoon,
+interesting as they were at the moment to those engaged in the work. The
+only condition which I made was that the Committee should have no
+politics and no religious distinctions, and it is enough now to say that
+thanks mainly to the exertions of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton and Mr. H. E.
+Morgan a Committee was formed under the required conditions and in the
+required time, Lord Hugh Cecil consenting to be our Chairman and Lord
+Gladstone our Treasurer.
+
+By the kindness of Mr. F. Norie-Miller, General Manager of the General
+Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, Ltd., offices were placed
+at our disposal entirely free of charge. The nucleus of a clerical and
+typewriting staff was secured. A name was chosen. An appeal was sent to
+the papers on Sunday night, and as a net result of our exertions we were
+enabled on the following Monday morning to take possession as a
+Committee of the empty offices which have since developed into the
+well-known headquarters of the War Refugees Committee at Aldwych. That
+first morning we had hardly pens and ink, we had not chairs to sit upon,
+the offices were almost entirely without furniture, and while we were
+trying to organize our immediate plan of operations the response to our
+Appeal, which had appeared only in that morning’s papers, took the
+embarrassing if at the same time encouraging form of no less than 1,000
+letters, all containing offers of hospitality and help.
+
+The response of the country to the movement was absolutely phenomenal.
+The 1,000 letters of that day became 2,000 on the following day, then
+3,000, then 4,000, then 5,000, and on the day on which we received 5,000
+letters there were also 1,200 callers at the Office. Every letter and
+every visitor brought proposals of help in one form or another. Within a
+fortnight we had at our disposal hospitality for 100,000 persons.
+Cheques, clothing, food, offers of personal service flowed in upon us. I
+could spend hours rather than minutes in telling you the details of that
+first outpouring of public generosity. The sense of the country was made
+absolutely clear that if it could not share the acute suffering caused
+to the people of Belgium by the war it desired to diminish that
+suffering by every means that it possessed. These offers came not from
+one class nor from one place, but from all classes and from all places.
+Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Nonconformist, high and low, rich and
+poor united, all unaware, in a spontaneous tribute of sympathy and
+respect. Nations, like individuals, have their moments of unconscious
+self-revelation. It was a moment which unmistakably revealed the heart
+of England.
+
+The enthusiasm and volume of the movement were cheering, and no offers
+touched us more deeply than the hundreds we received, often on
+postcards, from the very poor. But the suddenness of the movement
+brought with it accompaniments which it must be admitted were difficult
+to cope with. We were soon accused, and justly accused, of not answering
+our letters, of not acknowledging our cheques, of not receiving our
+visitors with due consideration. It was all true! though it remained so
+only for a few days. To have done otherwise was a physical
+impossibility, for what were we among so many? We were only a willing
+company of amateurs suddenly called upon to deal with the conditions of
+a large business created in twenty-four hours. And while this volume of
+external business was pouring in the true object of our existence
+remained in our opinion the providing of homes for our coming guests. We
+contented ourselves with safeguarding our cheques, and gave our thoughts
+to the refugees.
+
+They began to come on the first day. They increased in numbers, not
+being immediately brought in ship-loads, but trickling through on their
+own account from various sources to the number of perhaps 100 or 150 a
+day. Our first difficulty with regard to finding homes for them was met
+by the kindness of Sir James Dunlop-Smith, who obtained from the India
+Office permission to place at our disposal a small house at 49, St.
+George’s Road, usually occupied by the King’s orderlies, but standing at
+the moment empty and furnished. This was the first place of refuge
+offered in this country to Belgians. It seemed to us a suitable
+coincidence that it should come, even indirectly, from the King. The
+Borough Council of Camberwell was, if my memory serves me rightly, the
+next to offer us beds for Belgian refugees. They had organized Dulwich
+Baths as a hospital, and they placed at our disposal between 80 and 100
+beds. Battersea followed their example. Private offers were added to
+these, and in two or three days we had a couple of hundred beds upon
+which we could count.
+
+We reached the third day of our existence before any news came of the
+ship-load of refugees for whose reception the Committee had been so
+hastily organized. It was on Wednesday evening at about half-past seven
+o’clock, as we were separating after a heavy day’s work, that a telegram
+was brought in saying, “One thousand refugees arriving Folkestone
+to-night. Can you take 500 in London tomorrow?” The moment had come. We
+afterwards discovered that this was not “the” ship, and as a matter of
+fact Mr. Wintour’s refugees never did come over in a special transport
+chartered for them. I give you our impressions, however, only as we
+received them then. We had provided with the greatest difficulty for
+250. To provide suddenly for 500 more seemed at first sight impossible.
+But to let you have one instance of the early work I will describe how
+it was done.
+
+Among the offers which had been made to us was one from the Army and
+Navy Stores proposing to lend us an empty shirt factory conveniently
+situated just opposite Victoria Station. It was in a perfectly sanitary
+condition, clean, with gas, light, and water laid on, but stark empty.
+At eight o’clock on Wednesday evening we accepted the offer. Mrs. Walter
+Cave took direction in this particular act of energy, and I believe she
+was up all that night. The Army and Navy Stores let us have beds at cost
+price. The Chairman of the Rowton Houses lent us crockery and linen.
+Willing help came from every side, and the result was achieved that
+before three on the following afternoon the shirt factory had been
+converted into a hostel, where 250 beds were made up with clean sheets
+and pillow-cases; a kitchen was arranged downstairs with eight
+cooking-stoves; dining-tables were ready laid; and a hot dinner for
+several hundred people awaited the arrival of the refugees. Our first
+batch of 250 arrived there that afternoon. We disposed of the others in
+different places, and from that day, though we continued to receive
+refugees in London at the rate of several hundreds per day, and were
+often at our wits’ end what to do, not one who reached our hands was
+ever left without food and lodging.
+
+The experience of this first week gave us the formation of the principal
+Departments of the War Refugees Committee. I do not propose now to
+detain you with any full description of our organization. For anyone who
+is interested the details are recorded in the Blue-Book issued by the
+Departmental Committee of the Local Government Board appointed to
+consider and report on questions arising in connection with the
+Reception and Employment of the Belgian Refugees in this country. I will
+indicate merely the framework of the machine which circumstances
+immediately brought into operation.
+
+
+                         LADY LUGARD’S HOSTELS
+                         FOR BELGIAN REFUGEES.
+
+                _Committee_—_Lady Lugard._
+                           _The Hon. Mrs. Roland Leigh._
+                           _Stuart Hogg, Esq._
+
+These Hostels have been instituted by Lady Lugard for the reception of
+Belgians who have hitherto lived on their private means but have come to
+the end of their resources. Also for some of a poorer class who have
+received hospitality offered for a definite period which has now come to
+an end.
+
+There are at present eleven houses, accommodating a total of about 400
+people. Two of these are more in the nature of hospitals, the rest are
+carried on like private hotels or boarding-houses. Care is taken to make
+the life as pleasant as possible. Guests are placed in the different
+houses according to their social rank; there is a capable manageress in
+every house, a Belgian cook, and to a large extent the other servants
+are Belgian.
+
+In many cases, where the refugees have some small means of their own, it
+has been found desirable to assist in payment of the rent of flats, or
+by direct contributions. At present 125 are helped in these ways.
+
+Lady Lugard’s aim has been to make each house a “little corner of
+Belgium,” as one of the guests happily expressed it. There is a
+committee of ladies, who visit these houses regularly and see that the
+inmates are as happy and comfortable as possible.
+
+All expenditure is accounted for to the Central Committee, and care is
+taken that there is no waste.
+
+The scheme has a certain amount of financial help from the War Refugees
+Committee, but all expenses of furnishing, rent, lighting, and general
+upkeep are borne by Lady Lugard’s Committee.
+
+Your help is asked to carry on this undertaking, which is one of the
+attempts to repay a small portion of the immense debt we owe to the
+unhappy Belgian nation.
+
+Cheques and postal orders should be made out to Lady Lugard, and
+addressed to her at
+
+                                                  51, RUTLAND GATE, S.W.
+
+
+Our first need was obviously a Card Index and Correspondence Department.
+This Department has since been placed under the very efficient
+management of Mr. Arthur Chadwick, assisted by Mr. Berks and Mr.
+Barsdorf, and with the Cashier’s Department under our excellent cashier,
+Mr. Bourne, has completely rescued us from the reproaches of the first
+days.
+
+We needed a Transport Department to meet refugees at the stations to
+convey them to and from the Refuges. We were helped at first by Mr. F.
+M. Guedalla, who also did yeoman service with Mr. Basil Williams and
+others in the reception of the refugees at Folkestone. By the kindness
+of Sir Albert Stanley and the London General Omnibus Company the
+services of one of the officers of that Company, Mr. Henry Campbell,
+were placed at our disposal, and under Mr. Campbell this Department has
+become one of the most important and efficient branches of our practical
+organization. Mr. Campbell’s grip and comprehension of the work of the
+War Refugees Committee is so complete that I believe if the whole
+Committee were swept away and Mr. Campbell were left standing, the work
+would still be satisfactorily carried on.
+
+Our next obvious need was an organized system of fitting the refugees
+into the offers of hospitality which were received for them. This has
+remained from the beginning the most complicated and difficult work we
+have had to do. A Department, afterwards known as our Allocation
+Department, was organized at once under Lady Gladstone, Mrs. Alfred
+Lyttelton, and Mrs. Gilbert Samuel, who have been assisted in the work
+by an army of willing volunteers. The work of this Department, of which
+a beginning had been made in the Belgian Consulate even before the War
+Refugees Committee came into existence, has since been carried on in
+four main divisions. There has been our Central Allocation Department,
+of which the direction has remainded in the hands of Mrs. Gilbert
+Samuel. There has been a very important development of subsidiary
+branches in the Rink under Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, helped of course by
+many willing workers, to all of whom she would, I am sure, wish to offer
+a tribute of gratitude. There has been the Allocation of the Belgian
+Consulate, also carried on at Aldwych, under the direction of the Misses
+Rothschild and a group of helpers, and there has been the Allocation of
+the Catholic Women’s League, under the direction of Miss Streeter,
+working always in co-operation with Aldwych, but carried on from their
+own headquarters in Victoria Street. In addition to these there has been
+also the Allocation, carried on independently of Aldwych, by the Jewish
+community, who from their own private offers have provided for upwards
+of 6,000 people. The Catholic ladies have allocated upwards of 6,000. In
+the Miss Rothschild’s room at Aldwych some 30,000 have been either
+allocated or helped in other ways. Our own two branches of Allocation
+have since the beginning of the movement arranged for the placing of
+between 50,000 and 60,000 persons. In all its branches the War Refugees
+Committee has found homes for about 100,000 persons.
+
+A Department taking its rise in the same necessities as the Allocation
+Department proper is the Department of Local Committees, which early in
+the movement formed themselves throughout the country for the better
+management of local offers of hospitality, while working in
+correspondence with Aldwych. This Department at Aldwych has been from
+the beginning under the supervision of Lord Lytton, who has directed it
+with an ability and devotion for which the War Refugees Committee have
+every reason to be grateful. The number of Local Committees with which
+his Department maintains touch is now nearly 2,000.
+
+To these Departments one other of great importance was added in the
+first days. It was our Clothing Department, with headquarters at 23,
+Warwick Square. Here Lady Emmott, ably assisted by Lady MacDonnell and
+other devoted ladies, has been enabled by the generosity of the public
+to distribute nearly a million garments, including much-needed boots and
+shoes.
+
+The creation of our different Departments was, as I have said,
+immediately imposed upon us by the conditions of the problem with which
+we were dealing. The general work of direction and coordination, and the
+creation of new means of meeting each new necessity of the situation had
+also to grow from the simple beginnings of the early days. It was soon
+found that it was desirable to place the Management under one direction,
+and it was decided to ask Lord Gladstone, who was prepared to give the
+time and devotion necessary to such a work, to accept a position which
+is, I suppose, equivalent to that usually held in a commercial company
+by the Managing Director. Mr. Morgan was at first associated in this
+direction, but found himself afterwards unable to devote the necessary
+time, and Lord Gladstone has from the beginning borne the brunt of the
+central work of the Committee. It is only in a later chapter, to which I
+shall have occasion to refer, that he has been assisted in a Management
+Committee by Lord Lytton, the Rt. Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., and Mr. A.
+Allen, M.P., to whom was added in the capacity of Honorary Secretary Mr.
+A. Maudslay, who has been from the beginning one of the most constant
+and devoted of our voluntary workers. I should mention here that Mr.
+Maudslay was among the most active of Mrs. Lyttelton’s helpers in the
+first organization of the Rink, and that at a later period he succeeded
+our first Secretary, Mr. Hennessy Cook, as Honorary Secretary to the War
+Refugees Committee. Lord Gladstone’s position has been no sinecure, and
+we all, if I may be permitted to say it, give ungrudging recognition to
+the absolute sincerity and unselfishness of purpose with which he has
+performed his work. We do not claim as a Committee—and I am sure Lord
+Gladstone would heartily agree with me—to have been perfectly organized
+or perfectly directed, or that our staff, amounting at one time to
+upwards of 500 devoted volunteers, have always perfectly understood or
+perfectly carried out the intentions and instructions of headquarters.
+We are willing to accept in a chastened spirit all reasonable criticism.
+The only claim we are concerned to make is that the War Refugees
+Committee throughout has been a willing instrument. In ourselves we have
+been nothing. The power by which we have been worked has been the
+country. We are proud only to have been privileged to represent a
+movement which may claim to take its place in history as the consolation
+of a nation by a nation.
+
+It is as a task of consolation that we have from the beginning conceived
+of our work. I regret to have detained you so long with a description of
+the machinery by which the work was done. I take you back now to the
+days when the first refugees, fleeing from the terror of fire and sword,
+began to reach our shores. These refugees were different from the
+refugees who are now arriving. They had actually borne the first
+onslaught of German fury. Men had seen their wives and daughters shot,
+and worse than shot, before their eyes. Fathers and mothers had seen
+their little children trampled to death under German feet. Old and young
+had alike been driven before the bayonet and placed as shields to
+protect the enemy from Belgian bullets. Some had been forced to dig
+graves, and even to bury men who were not yet dead. All had been smoked
+and burned out of their pillaged homes, holding themselves lucky if they
+were not forced back to be consumed in the funeral pyres of their
+domestic possessions. It has become the fashion now to cast doubt upon
+the authenticity of deeds fit only for the annals of the Middle Ages.
+Those of us who helped at that time nightly to receive the refugees as
+they arrived can never forget the tales of inconceivable horror which
+were poured into our ears, nor the convincing simplicity of narration
+which made it impossible to doubt their general truth. I remember the
+first refugee with whom I happened to speak about herself. It was not a
+horrible case—on the contrary, quite simple—but it brought home to me
+with a shock of realization what was happening within an ordinary day’s
+journey of London. It was only a mother feeding her child with a basin
+of bread and milk in one of our Refuges. I asked her where she came
+from. She said “Charleroi.” “Then you have seen the fighting?” “Oh, yes,
+I carried him—indicating the baby—out under the German guns.” It was
+nothing. She had had the luck to escape, but the contrast between the
+peacefulness of her actual occupation and her words brought home what
+she had escaped from. In the same Refuge on a later day there was a man
+whose face was like the face of a tragic fate. He did not speak, he did
+not move. The ladies who were working in the Refuge approached him for
+some time in vain. One reminded him that he had his wife, while many had
+lost their wives, and at last he spoke. “Yes,” he said, “I have my wife!
+But we had five children, and we have not one left. Four of the little
+ones were trampled to death under the feet of a German regiment, and my
+little girl, my eldest, fourteen years old, was given to the German
+soldiery, who misused her before my eyes. Afterwards they took her away
+with the regiment.” And he fell back to the only thing he seemed able to
+say, “We had five children—we have not one left.” The stories which we
+heard at that time, daily and nightly, from not one alone, but from
+practically every refugee who reached us, were such as surpass all
+imagination of horror and brutality. We heard them; we became in a sense
+accustomed to hearing them, but the details of many were such as I could
+not possibly repeat in a public assembly such as this. An observant
+friend who accompanied me one day to a Refuge said, as we came out,
+“These people look as if they had all seen ghosts.” They _had_ seen
+ghosts! They had seen spectres of carnage, cruelty, lust, and
+brutality—such evil spirits as, thank God, are not often let loose upon
+the face of earth. You will readily understand that to us who were with
+them at that time, who heard these stories every day, no extenuation of
+German conduct which can ever be produced will efface the impression
+that these awful things were literally true. It was also abundantly
+evident that they were not the isolated acts of brutal or drunken
+individuals. Evidence was unanimous, and to our minds conclusive, that
+the crimes were committed in pursuance of a general order from above.
+
+I will not hold your imagination in this atmosphere. Let it be placed to
+the credit of twentieth-century civilization that the universal
+abhorrence aroused by the conduct of the German army towards civilians
+was such as to force German authorities to a recognition of the mistake
+they had committed. Orders to terrorize the population were apparently
+withdrawn, and, so far as we are aware, the brutalities of the first
+weeks of the campaign have for the present ceased.
+
+It was on the 24th of August that the War Refugees Committee received
+its first refugees. Until the 9th of September they were received, as I
+have told you, in our own Refuges, where we tried to make them as
+comfortable as we could. Some little difficulty and hesitation existed
+at first as to the question of facilitating the transport of refugees
+from Belgium. But this and all other doubt upon the matter was set at
+rest by the public offer of the hospitality of the nation which was
+made, as you will remember, by the Prime Minister in the House of
+Commons on the 9th of September. From that day the Government has stood
+behind the movement, and the War Refugees Committee has worked in close
+and friendly relation with the Local Government Board.
+
+The first chapter of Government intervention was to relieve the War
+Refugees Committee of the expense and difficulty of providing Refuges in
+London.[1] The Government took the Alexandra Palace, and in that and
+other available public institutions it organized immediately, under the
+Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Board of Guardians, Refuges which had
+a total capacity of about 8,000 persons. After the fall of Antwerp,
+Earl’s Court Camp, with a further capacity of 4,000 persons, was added
+to the government Refuges. Up to the middle of September the War
+Refugees Committee had had difficulty in receiving as many as 500 a day.
+Since that time, so far as the great majority, which consisted of
+working class refugees, are concerned, the War Refugees Committee has
+been relieved of anxiety. The first needs of shelter and food were
+supplied, and admirably supplied, by the Government Refuges. I should
+like in passing to offer my tribute of praise to the splendid work done
+by the officials alike of the Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Board
+of Guardians. I was for many weeks in close relation day and night with
+what was being done, and I can speak from personal observation of the
+devoted zeal, the kindness of heart, and the untiring industry with
+which the work of receiving, housing, and feeding the refugees was
+carried out.
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  For a full description of what was done by the Local Government Board
+  the reader is referred to White Book, Cd. 7763.
+
+The organization of the Alexandra Palace, where at first about 1,500
+were received, may be taken as a sample of the rest. The Alexandra
+Palace, as you know, is a large glass building originally intended for
+public recreation, and conveniently situated in its own grounds on a
+hill overlooking the North of London. Its central halls, with their
+merry-go-rounds and swing-boats, lent themselves readily to the
+reception of refugees, and in the early days visitors who went to
+condole with the victims of tragic misfortune were usually saluted with
+shouts of delight proceeding from children profiting with all the
+unconsciousness of their age by the unusual opportunities of enjoyment!
+The glass roofs of the building admitted sunshine to every corner. One
+of the central halls was converted into a great dining-room, where
+sufficient and comfortable meals were served with order and regularity.
+Beyond the dining-room there was a nursery and hospital, bright with
+white beds and flowers. Beyond the hospital a large hall has been
+converted into a bathroom with curtained cubicles, where upwards of 100
+baths, fitted with hot and cold water, are at the disposal of the
+refugees. Another large room is used as a schoolroom and kindergarten
+for the children. A cinema theatre was converted into a chapel. Rooms
+were set aside for workrooms and the distribution of clothing. The many
+rooms surrounding the central halls were converted into dormitories
+holding each from 60 to 100 beds. In one room the beds had pink
+coverings, in the next they had blue. Screens covered with chintz gave a
+certain privacy to groups of beds. Crucifixes were fixed on the walls.
+Everything that could be done to give a homely and pleasant aspect to
+the place was done with the utmost goodwill. These were the arrangements
+made before the fall of Antwerp for the general mass of refugees.
+Upstairs in a more private wing of the building there was accommodation,
+with a comfortably furnished sitting-room and dining-room, for about 100
+persons who might for any reason on their first arrival be distinguished
+from the ordinary crowd. Before the fall of Antwerp, since which period
+the rush of refugees has caused too great a pressure of overcrowding,
+there was a grace, almost a certain charm, in the arrangements. Her
+Majesty the Queen showed her sympathy with the refugees by visiting them
+in the Alexandra Palace, and expressed her gracious approval of the
+arrangements which had been made for them.
+
+Alexandra Palace was, of course, only one place. The spirit which
+dictated its organization presided also over the organization of the
+other Refuges. At Alexandra Palace the ladies of Wood Green and the
+locality gave devoted service in the development of Clothing, Sewing,
+and other departments designed for the comfort of the refugees. At
+Earl’s Court Camp the ladies of the Local Government Board have taken
+these departments under their charge, and have devoted themselves to the
+development of educational and other facilities.
+
+The first refugees arrived usually in a state of absolute destitution.
+Their constant prayer was that they might be immediately allowed to work
+and to earn for themselves some portion back of what they had lost. But
+an opinion was at that time held that no attempt should be made to
+obtain employment for these refugees in the ordinary labour market of
+the country, and the lavish hospitality which was offered to them
+encouraged the hope that they might be amply provided for by private
+beneficence during the continuance of the war.
+
+The first work of the War Refugees Committee when the refugees arrived
+in the Government Refuges was, therefore, to supply them as far as
+possible with immediate necessaries. They needed everything. Besides the
+substantial requirements of clothes and shoes, they wanted combs,
+brushes, soap, hair-pins, boot-laces, braces, needles, cotton,
+thimbles—everything that even the poorest find necessary in daily life.
+The men, of course, urgently wanted tobacco; the women wanted
+knitting-needles and wool to knit. We did our best to supply all these,
+and among the small articles which at that time were distributed freely
+none were more eagerly accepted than rosaries. We gave them away by
+thousands. The exodus had been so sudden that they had apparently in
+many cases been left behind, and men and women alike among the first
+arrivals from the Walloon country seemed anxious to possess themselves
+of this usual accompaniment of prayer.
+
+There are subjects about which one hesitates to speak in public, yet I
+would like just to place on record the impression we received from these
+first refugees of simple faith. They seemed themselves to realize, in
+the tragic extremity of their distress, that they had lost everything
+except their God, and I cannot easily convey the touching fervour of the
+prayers in the chapels of the Refuges at which I once or twice
+incidentally assisted. Piety, courage, extraordinary fortitude, and
+overflowing heartfelt gratitude for all that was being done for them in
+England were the principal characteristics that enlisted our sympathy
+and admiration for our guests.
+
+I know it may be said that the heroic note has not been consistently
+sustained. That is only to say that human nature remains human in all
+circumstances. And I would ask, if Oxford had suffered the fate of
+Louvain, if Canterbury had been destroyed instead of Rheims, if
+Manchester or Birmingham or Leeds had been bombarded and their
+population driven out homeless and penniless to foreign shores, do you
+believe that the whole exodus would have been an exodus of heroes? From
+the days of Israel onward some members of every great migration have
+been found to murmur and to cry for quails as well as manna in the
+desert. None grieve for this occasional backsliding more sincerely than
+the majority of the better-disposed Belgians themselves. I only wish to
+bear testimony to the other side, which I have myself seen and admired,
+of patient and even magnificent endurance.
+
+The refugees were supposed to remain in the London Refuges for a period
+of only three to five days at the outside. Once rested and re-fitted it
+was the work of the War Refugees Committee to pass them on to the
+permanent homes so cordially offered by the hospitality of the country.
+It was in these homes that their real reception awaited them, and in
+these that was prepared for them by the kindness of individual English
+hearts the “haven where they would be.” With what happened after they
+left our hands we had, of course, little or nothing to do. Everyone gave
+to his own guests according to the fullness of his means. We received
+many letters of enthusiastic thanks expressing the content and joy of
+the refugees, but our business was only to organize the passing of the
+refugees from the London Refuges to their homes.
+
+The brunt of this work fell, of course, on our Allocation Department,
+which, as the pressure grew more and more acute through the months of
+September and October, was obliged steadily to increase its forces. It
+employed at one time upwards of 100 volunteers. The work of these ladies
+and gentlemen consisted in receiving from the Correspondence Department
+overnight cards upon which the offers of hospitality made to the
+Committee were indexed. With the cards they went on the following day
+into the Refuges, and subsequently into hotels in which better-class
+refugees were housed, and their object was—acting with as much tact and
+sympathy as possible—to find from the information given on the cards the
+most suitable accommodation for the many differing parties of refugees
+who presented themselves. At the beginning of the movement refugees had
+to be dealt with only at the rate of 100 or 200 per day. From the date
+of the public offer of national hospitality made by the Government, the
+number increased steadily until, during the rush created by the fall of
+Antwerp, which marked the maximum pressure of the movement, it became
+necessary for the Allocation Department to deal with upwards of 2,000
+persons every day. It is difficult for the public to realize the
+magnitude of the task thus performed. It involved not only the delicate
+personal decisions which had to be made by each individual Allocator,
+but it carried with it all the complicated arrangements of registration,
+transport, and warning of hosts. All four branches of the Allocation
+Department were at this time worked to their utmost.
+
+The arrangements for transport of these separate branches fell upon the
+Transport Department. Every refugee who arrived from the Continent had
+to be met and taken to a Refuge or a hotel. Every refugee who left one
+of the Refuges or a hotel to take up the hospitality allotted to him in
+the country had to be provided with a pass over the railway, had to be
+convoyed to the railway station, and his host had to be warned at what
+hour and at what station he was to be received. During the stress
+created by the fall of Antwerp, when upwards of 4,000 refugees arrived
+in one day in London by trainloads from the Continent, and as many as
+2,000 had to be sent in small individual groups to different stations of
+the British Isles, a total of 6,000 had to be handled every day! It has
+been estimated that during this period as many as 8,000 and 10,000
+refugees crossed the Channel daily to our shores. No warning nor
+preparation could be given as to the numbers to be dealt with. While the
+crisis lasted they poured in day and night, taxing the energies of the
+whole organization almost to breaking-point. Not only Transport and
+Allocation, but Clothing, Correspondence, and Local Committees, with all
+their subsidiary branches, were heavily overworked. They bore the
+strain. There was no break-down. We were able to meet and deal with the
+crisis. It may readily be imagined that in work of a delicate nature
+accomplished under such pressure, some mistakes were inevitable; but we
+worked with the consoling thought present to our minds, that if the
+public could have realized the conditions under which the work was done,
+it would have been surprised rather at the few than at the many errors
+into which we fell.
+
+The fall of Antwerp brought us to a new chapter of our work, of which I
+would have much to say but that I have already kept you longer than I
+would have wished. I must touch only as briefly as possible on the
+aspects of the question which now present themselves.
+
+The crisis lasted only a couple of weeks. The occupation of Ostend by
+the Germans on October 17th closed the Belgian coast and stopped the
+daily transport service. Since that time refugees have been only able to
+reach us by way of Holland, and though this country has continued to
+provide such facilities as are possible for their transit, the figures
+of the daily arrivals have fallen considerably. The total for November
+was the lowest for any month since the beginning of the war. In December
+and January the numbers again mounted, giving a total of 12,000 for
+December and 14,000 for January. Refugees are still, notwithstanding the
+dangers of mines and submarines and the prohibition of our blockade
+zone, arriving in numbers which are to be counted daily in three
+figures. But the rush is over. We are no longer working under the same
+conditions of pressure.
+
+There are noticeable also some other remarkable differences. We are
+working now with a different class of refugee. The simple country folk
+of the first exodus have given place to the urban population of the
+great towns, and they come to us under different conditions. The early
+refugees had, as I have told you, suffered in their own persons all the
+worst horrors of war. Since the fall of Antwerp the flight has been
+rather—though not of course wholly—from “the wrath to come.” Many
+refugees are fleeing from what they fear may happen rather than from
+what has actually happened. I speak chiefly for the moment of the
+working-classes. Many of those now coming have been attracted to this
+country by the accounts sent back in the first moments of relief and
+gratitude by the earlier refugees. In the Refuges and Hostels we saw
+many of the postcards written by the first refugees, and they
+represented this country and people as something so near Paradise and
+the angels, that expectation based upon such description could hardly
+fail of disappointment. It need not therefore be a matter of surprise if
+some difference is observable between the attitude and tone of the
+refugees housed in the Government Refuges to-day, and those with whom
+the same Refuges were filled in the earlier stages of the movement.
+
+The gradual development of the situation which has brought us a
+different class of refugee has also brought about a very important
+modification of opinion with regard to the conditions of their
+reception. It has been decided that the employment of refugees instead
+of being deprecated should now be encouraged, and that instead of
+depending for subsistence on the hospitality of the country they should,
+as far as possible, be enabled to support themselves. A Government
+Committee has been appointed, as you know, under the Chairmanship of Sir
+Ernest Hatch, to consider the conditions under which effect can be given
+to this new view of the situation. Belgian Labour Bureaux working in
+connection with the Central Labour Bureaux have been established in the
+Government Refuges, as also in the Rink at Aldwych. Recruiting Bureaux
+have been established in the Government Refuges, by means of which
+Belgians of military age are enabled to join their colours and return to
+the front at Flanders. By these agencies in conjunction with the
+Government Refuges, and other forms of Government Relief for urgent
+cases the problem of the reception of working class refugees may, I
+think, be said to have been met and disposed of.
+
+Outside these questions the problem with which since Christmas we have
+been most acutely preoccupied is the problem of giving suitable help to
+the urgent needs of the propertied and professional classes. This is a
+class with which I have myself been thrown into close and constant
+touch, and the sorrows and difficulties of their position are very vivid
+to me. They have suffered, of course, horribly in regard to their
+material possessions, and the numbers increase daily of persons
+accustomed to live in the comfort of comparative affluence who are
+reduced to absolute penury. Such cases call for the sincerest sympathy
+and for practical help. Where only material possessions are concerned
+they do not, it must be recognized, make quite the same poignant appeal
+to elemental emotions that was made by the earlier refugees. But there
+is seldom a day in which some special case does not present itself. A
+day or two ago it was a case of a man of good position and once ample
+means who had seen his wife and daughter shot by the Germans, and who
+came in search of some educational facilities for his little boy, the
+only member of the family now left to him. He was entirely penniless.
+The next day it was a manufacturer from Louvain who had shared in all
+the horrors attending the destruction of that town. His town house and
+his country house, with all that they contained, had been destroyed. He
+himself had been taken as a hostage by the Germans. He was three times
+blindfolded and ordered to be shot, and three times at the last moment
+the order was countermanded. He was beaten and spat upon. He was forced
+to march with other Belgians as a covering rank in front of the German
+advance. As he said in very quietly relating these experiences: “It is
+doubted whether the Germans really used Belgian civilians as a
+covering-shield for their soldiers. I _know_, because they have used me.
+They put us in the front of their attack, and bullets whistled between
+us as we advanced.” But these things were all as nothing to the anguish
+of knowing that the soldiery which had marched him away in one direction
+had taken his wife away in another. It was impossible for him to know
+anything of her fate. After some days of marching in front of the German
+troops they came in touch with Belgian outposts. He was able to effect
+his escape, and he reached Antwerp through the Belgian lines. Still
+unable to obtain any news of his wife, he advertised in the hope that
+the news he gave of himself might reach her eyes. It did. After long
+delay the news was brought to him that she was alive, that she had
+escaped without serious injury from the Germans, and that she was in
+hiding in the neighbourhood of Louvain. To reach her he went on foot
+from Antwerp to Louvain, passing as he could through the German lines,
+hiding at times in ditches and swamps, wading through rivers to avoid
+the guarded roads. He told me the whole story with absolute calm, and
+only when he came to the climax of their meeting he suddenly broke
+down—“My wife!” he said, “she had been living in the woods and fields
+with practically nothing to eat. She was a black skeleton, mere skin
+drawn over her bones.” He could say no more. I didn’t wish that he
+should. My business was merely to find him some means of living now that
+he and his wife were together in a place of safety. You can understand
+that after hearing such a story one’s only feeling is that peace and
+security must somehow be assured.
+
+In the early part of the movement such cases as these were provided for
+by private hospitality, and I come now to the greatest change of all
+which the movement has undergone. The movement of private hospitality,
+which has provided from first to last for a figure approaching to
+something like a quarter of a million refugees, has, as was to a certain
+extent inevitable, exhausted its first impulse. About Christmas time we
+began to realize that the offers of hospitality had ceased. No fresh
+offers came, and hosts who had previously had Belgians in their houses
+wrote that they would shortly be needing this accommodation for other
+purposes. Our Allocation Department became a Department of
+Re-Allocation. Gifts of clothing also sensibly diminished.
+
+The funds of the War Refugees Committee, which have been devoted to the
+relief of Belgians in England, have never been very great. Public
+contributions in money have been more usually given to the Belgian
+Relief Fund, which is entirely devoted to the relief of Belgians in
+Belgium. We have sometimes thought that the public did not clearly
+understand the distinction between the two Funds. Our wealth has
+consisted mainly in offers of hospitality and gifts in kind. When these
+began to cease we saw ourselves in danger of being unable to continue
+our work for want of means, and this situation introduced the present
+and latest chapter upon which we have entered.
+
+I am sorry that I am not able at present to enter into a full
+explanation of schemes which are as yet imperfectly developed. A time
+will come when all necessary information will be freely given. For our
+present purpose I will ask you only to take from me that we have under
+certain conditions a command of funds which enable us to give relief in
+cases of strict necessity. The money so available is not to be regarded
+as a substitute for, but as a supplement to, private generosity. It is
+in certain cases sufficient for the necessities of a working man. The
+part of private generosity for better-class refugees still remains to
+bring the bare necessities of life up to the standard which the nation
+would wish to offer in such cases as those I have just now cited.
+
+There are many obvious ways in which this can be done. Among the most
+generally successful so far has been the organization of large houses on
+the basis of gratuitous hotels. I have myself organized two or three
+such houses, notably, one at Harrington House in Kensington Palace
+Gardens, lent to me for the purpose by Lord Harrington, another at
+Hambro House in Prince’s Gate, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Eric Hambro, and a
+third in the King’s Weigh House Parsonage, furnished and lent by the
+congregation of the King’s Weigh House Church in Duke Street. In these
+three houses I have been able to receive about 120 refugees, who make
+with regard to them very charming expressions of content. What I have
+done has also been done by many others. Houses of this description are
+springing up like mushrooms through the country, and it has been thought
+that many people who are no longer able to entertain Belgian refugees in
+their own homes may be willing to contribute towards a system of
+organized hospitality under which suitable homes can be provided.
+
+Another way of meeting the necessities of the class of refugees of whom
+we are now speaking is by paying the rent of furnished flats, in which a
+very small grant is sometimes enough to render domestic life a
+possibility. Among the propertied and professional classes there are
+some who have still some small resources. For these the active brain of
+Mrs. Lyttelton has devised, in consultation with Lord Gladstone, a
+scheme which she is administering as a branch of the War Refugees
+Committee, of flats furnished by the Committee, and placed at the lowest
+possible prices at the service of the refugees. The scheme deserves a
+fuller description than I am able to give it. In all schemes of
+hospitable relief the National Food Supply, the Belgian Refugee Food
+Supply, and other charitable organizations, of which the gratuitous food
+is in great part contributed as a free gift by our Colonies, play an
+important part.
+
+I would like to have been able to do justice to other institutions for
+the assistance of refugees which have from the beginning of the movement
+developed as branches of the various Departments at Aldwych. I can only
+permit myself just to name the Education Department, under Lady
+Gladstone, Mr. Englehart (of Leper Island fame), Father Christie and the
+Abbé Michiele, where, by a movement of Educational hospitality offered
+by the public schools, the Catholic institutions, and the universities
+of the country, free education has been provided for nearly 2,000
+Belgian young people. In this movement I am glad to be able to say that
+Eton, Oxford, and Cambridge have handsomely done their part.
+
+Another branch of activity which has been of the greatest value
+throughout the whole movement has been the Health Department, which,
+under Mrs. George Montagu, assisted by Miss Page, the daughter of the
+American Ambassador, has given help and relief to hundreds of cases of
+the sick and otherwise disabled. In connection with this department
+there is also a dispensary, where gratuitous medicine and medical advice
+from Belgian doctors can be obtained. Nor is it only in the Allocation
+and Health Departments that secondary branches of utility have blossomed
+forth. The Rink is full of useful minor institutions, brought into being
+by the necessities of the situation. The Transport Department has many
+subsidiary activities. Work done for _réformé_ soldiers who have served
+their country to the limits of their strength, and work done for
+“undesirables” who can serve no country, are at different ends of the
+scale, alike branches of benevolent utility.
+
+A Department which is probably doing in its way as much humane work as
+any other is what we call the “Missing Relatives” Department. It is
+divided into two sections—the Poste Restante section and the section
+which deals with Lost Relatives. We receive a great number of letters
+addressed to refugees, care of our Committee. For a time they lay
+unclaimed. Then our Correspondence Department conceived the idea of
+endeavouring to trace their owners, in order that they might be
+forwarded. We have, of course, now registered the addresses of many
+thousands of refugees. By the courtesy of the Registrar-General we are
+allowed to search also daily the files of Somerset House, and in the
+last three weeks alone over 500 letters have been traced and forwarded
+to their owners. In the “Lost Relatives” section all urgent cases, such,
+for instance, as a father or mother searching for their lost children,
+or a husband his wife, etc., are handled immediately by our
+Correspondence Department, who make every effort to trace the missing
+person. The machinery which is used for tracing the letters is put in
+operation, and I am glad to say that we frequently succeed in finding
+and uniting the members of families who have lost each other in the
+flight.
+
+In the Belgian Consulate room Monsieur Grumbar and the two Misses
+Baschewitz, with their helpers, continue to earn the gratitude of their
+compatriots by their constant and willing service. Of the Consulate as
+such I do not, of course, venture to speak. From the beginning of the
+movement it has had offices under the same roof as the War Refugees
+Committee, and has been closely associated with our work. Its own work
+is outside the scope of the present paper.
+
+I cannot leave this branch of my subject without mentioning
+collectively, as I only wish I could mention individually, the admirable
+quality of the voluntary work which has been freely given in every
+department. The few developments I have enumerated only serve to
+indicate the activity that exists, and they have nearly all been carried
+out by volunteer effort. Those of us who happen to be at the head of
+Departments are spoken of, and our work obtains recognition and
+gratitude often far beyond its deserts. I would like to say that our
+work would have been absolutely impossible had it not been for the
+devoted, generous, and regular support of hundreds of volunteers who
+have given every bit as much as we have given, and who have been content
+to do it—to come early, to stay late, to work day after day
+unflinchingly at the least interesting tasks, to spend their strength,
+their emotions, their money, and their time in the background, so to
+speak, of our organization, without a thought of anything but the help
+that they could give. These volunteers have come from every rank. I have
+mentioned 500. Had we wanted 5,000 we could have had them. I am almost
+ashamed even to speak of thanks or recognition where it has been so
+little sought. I would only say of many of our unmentioned helpers that
+their names should be written in letters of gold, were it possible that
+any true record could be kept of the service which this movement has
+called forth.
+
+All the Departments I have mentioned and many others are still active at
+Aldwych. Lord Gladstone, Lord Lytton, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Allen, who
+have been associated in the Management Committee since the opening or
+our latest chapter, have their time fully occupied. There is no sign of
+any diminution of work. Neither is there on our part any diminution of
+energy or of interest in the work which still remains to be done.
+
+You may be inclined to think from some of the particulars which I have
+given you of the latest chapter of the work that the heroic moment of
+the movement has passed—for England as well as for our guests. I would
+only venture to say that in heroic moments resolutions are conceived—it
+is for subsequent acts to give them shape. In the details which I have
+given you we are simply working out the national resolution that the
+exiles now in our midst shall be cared for, helped, and protected to the
+limits of our ability until the day dawns for them, when they may return
+to the homes they love. We see no end, and we desire to see no end, to
+our exertions but the day of repatriation. Be that day near or far, it
+is our hope to continue our work till it is reached, and we look with
+quiet confidence and absolute assurance to the public we know to give us
+the full support of its sympathy and its help.
+
+
+         CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
+                  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77327 ***
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+  <body>   
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77327 ***</div>
+
+<div class='tnotes covernote'>
+
+<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p>
+
+<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='titlepage'>
+
+<div>
+  <h1 class='c001'><span class='xlarge'>THE WORK OF</span><br> THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE</h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div><span class='large'>AN ADDRESS</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='small'>GIVEN BY</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='large'>LADY LUGARD</span></div>
+    <div>TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS</div>
+    <div>MARCH 24th, 1915</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='[Logo]' class='ig001'>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>LONDON</div>
+    <div class='c003'>G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>1915</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>
+  <h2 class='c004'><span class='large'>THE WORK OF THE</span><br> WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/i_003.jpg' alt='[Logo]' class='ig001'>
+</div>
+
+<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c005'>I have been asked to speak to-day about the
+work of the War Refugees Committee.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The work of the War Refugees Committee is
+intimately associated with what will, I believe,
+hereafter be regarded as one of the most acutely
+pathetic chapters of our island history. Because
+we are an island, because a stretch of sea lies
+between us and Europe, because, above all, we have
+a Navy which for a thousand years has known how
+to defend that strip of sea, we have been able, not
+for the first time in our history, to offer refuge to
+a people stricken and driven out from their proper
+home.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>There is no need for me to speak now of what
+Belgium has done—we all have the knowledge in
+our hearts. In the Titanic struggle in which we
+are engaged Belgium bore for a time the burden
+of the world, and the world can never forget, and
+never repay.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>We all remember the shock of horror with which
+we read the first accounts of the atrocities perpetrated
+at Visé and Liège. But we have almost
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>forgotten that only a few days before the outbreak
+of this war our eyes were turned towards another
+theatre of disturbance, and the outbreak of civil
+war in Ireland was the catastrophe we feared. For
+a moment I must recall it in connection with the
+refugees, for, strange as it may seem, the War
+Refugees Committee is, in a sense, the lineal descendant
+of the Ulster Council.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The preparations of Ulster in the early summer
+of last year were sufficiently public to be known
+to anyone who chose to be acquainted with them.
+Like most Irish Protestants, I was aware that in
+view of coming contingencies arrangements had
+been made for the removal of many thousands of
+women and children from the area which was likely
+to become a theatre of war. These arrangements
+had been made with great thoroughness. Registration
+and all other necessary forms had been prepared,
+transport had been organized and safe homes
+had been secured in England. The outbreak of
+European war mercifully averted the misfortune of
+war in Ireland, and when the news of the first
+atrocities came through from Belgium they suggested
+the idea, “Why not use the Ulster organization
+to get the Belgian women and children out if
+possible from under the German guns?” At that
+time we had of course no conception of the development
+which the Refugee movement was ultimately
+to take. The thought in my mind was mainly
+of women and children. I telegraphed to Captain
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>Craig to ask whether, if such a scheme proved
+feasible, he would let me have the use of the Ulster
+organization. He telegraphed back immediately
+that everything they had was at my disposal for
+such a purpose. He sent me all their registration
+forms—forms which we are to-day using at the
+War Refugees Committee—and put me immediately
+in touch with people who had the necessary
+information. In twenty-four hours I had the embryo
+of an organization in my hands.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>But it was evidently necessary to change what I
+may call the “sentiment base.” The next step was
+to approach the Catholic Church and to ask of
+Cardinal Bourne that the Catholic institutions of
+Great Britain and Ireland might be circularized in
+order to ascertain how many homes of undoubted
+security could be placed at the disposal of Belgian
+refugees. I was received with a cordiality which,
+I would like to say here once for all, the Catholic
+Church has constantly maintained towards the
+movement. I was assured by Monsignor Bidwell,
+whom Cardinal Bourne deputed to discuss the
+matter with me, that assuming the movement to
+be properly organized and to be viewed with favour
+by the Government, the Catholic authorities would
+be very ready to help.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>With this amount of preparation I approached
+the Foreign Office, and was assured of the sympathy
+of Sir Edward Grey. The Local Government
+Board signified their approval, and the
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>Foreign Office was good enough ultimately to
+arrange an interview for me with the Belgian
+Minister, directing me that in placing the scheme
+before him I was to inquire what steps his Government,
+in the event of their viewing the proposal
+with favour, would take to make the scheme known
+in Belgium. In accordance with these instructions
+I laid the scheme before the Comte de Lalaing,
+and in due course an answer was received from the
+Belgian Government accepting the proposal with
+gratitude, and saying that they would make the
+scheme known in Belgium, and would direct intending
+refugees to come to Ostend, whence they
+understood that we would take steps to bring them
+away.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>While these negotiations were in progress the
+position in Belgium was becoming every day more
+acute, and efforts which had already been started
+in other quarters to alleviate this distress were suddenly
+brought into line with my endeavour. Lord
+Lytton had begun collecting contributions towards
+the Belgian Relief Fund from exhibitors at the
+recent Brussels and Ghent Exhibitions. This had
+led Mr. Wintour, of the Exhibitions Branch of
+the Board of Trade, to pay a visit to Ostend,
+where the homeless refugees were already congregated
+in large numbers. On August 22nd I was
+informed by Mr. Reyntiens and Mr. Wintour that
+they had the promise of a transport, from the
+Admiralty, with which they were immediately
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>going to fetch over refugees, and that they hoped
+to return on the following Monday with a ship-load.
+I asked Mr. Reyntiens how many they proposed
+to bring back. He said “As many as we
+can get—anything from 100 to 1,000.” To the
+inquiry “What do you propose to do with your
+refugees when you bring them back?” his reply
+was, in effect, “We leave that to you!” There was
+no time to discuss the matter; it was necessary for
+him to go at once and get his papers ready, and I
+was left on Saturday morning in full sympathy
+with the adventure, but with the knowledge that
+on Monday I might be expected to receive in
+England 1,000 refugees.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>No Committee had as yet been formed. It was
+evident that between Saturday and Monday a
+Committee had to be created. I will not delay
+you with a relation of the details of that Saturday
+and Sunday afternoon, interesting as they were at
+the moment to those engaged in the work. The
+only condition which I made was that the Committee
+should have no politics and no religious
+distinctions, and it is enough now to say that
+thanks mainly to the exertions of Mrs. Alfred
+Lyttelton and Mr. H. E. Morgan a Committee
+was formed under the required conditions and in
+the required time, Lord Hugh Cecil consenting
+to be our Chairman and Lord Gladstone our
+Treasurer.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>By the kindness of Mr. F. Norie-Miller, General
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Manager of the General Accident Fire and Life
+Assurance Corporation, Ltd., offices were placed
+at our disposal entirely free of charge. The nucleus
+of a clerical and typewriting staff was secured. A
+name was chosen. An appeal was sent to the
+papers on Sunday night, and as a net result of
+our exertions we were enabled on the following
+Monday morning to take possession as a Committee
+of the empty offices which have since developed
+into the well-known headquarters of the
+War Refugees Committee at Aldwych. That first
+morning we had hardly pens and ink, we had not
+chairs to sit upon, the offices were almost entirely
+without furniture, and while we were trying to
+organize our immediate plan of operations the response
+to our Appeal, which had appeared only in
+that morning’s papers, took the embarrassing if at
+the same time encouraging form of no less than
+1,000 letters, all containing offers of hospitality
+and help.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The response of the country to the movement
+was absolutely phenomenal. The 1,000 letters of
+that day became 2,000 on the following day, then
+3,000, then 4,000, then 5,000, and on the day on
+which we received 5,000 letters there were also
+1,200 callers at the Office. Every letter and every
+visitor brought proposals of help in one form or
+another. Within a fortnight we had at our disposal
+hospitality for 100,000 persons. Cheques,
+clothing, food, offers of personal service flowed in
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>upon us. I could spend hours rather than minutes
+in telling you the details of that first outpouring of
+public generosity. The sense of the country was
+made absolutely clear that if it could not share the
+acute suffering caused to the people of Belgium by
+the war it desired to diminish that suffering by
+every means that it possessed. These offers came
+not from one class nor from one place, but from
+all classes and from all places. Catholic and
+Protestant, Jew and Nonconformist, high and
+low, rich and poor united, all unaware, in a spontaneous
+tribute of sympathy and respect. Nations,
+like individuals, have their moments of unconscious
+self-revelation. It was a moment which unmistakably
+revealed the heart of England.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The enthusiasm and volume of the movement
+were cheering, and no offers touched us more
+deeply than the hundreds we received, often on
+postcards, from the very poor. But the suddenness
+of the movement brought with it accompaniments
+which it must be admitted were difficult to cope
+with. We were soon accused, and justly accused,
+of not answering our letters, of not acknowledging
+our cheques, of not receiving our visitors with due
+consideration. It was all true! though it remained
+so only for a few days. To have done otherwise
+was a physical impossibility, for what were we
+among so many? We were only a willing company
+of amateurs suddenly called upon to deal with the
+conditions of a large business created in twenty-four
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>hours. And while this volume of external
+business was pouring in the true object of our
+existence remained in our opinion the providing of
+homes for our coming guests. We contented ourselves
+with safeguarding our cheques, and gave
+our thoughts to the refugees.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>They began to come on the first day. They
+increased in numbers, not being immediately
+brought in ship-loads, but trickling through on
+their own account from various sources to the
+number of perhaps 100 or 150 a day. Our first
+difficulty with regard to finding homes for them
+was met by the kindness of Sir James Dunlop-Smith,
+who obtained from the India Office permission
+to place at our disposal a small house at
+49, St. George’s Road, usually occupied by the
+King’s orderlies, but standing at the moment
+empty and furnished. This was the first place of
+refuge offered in this country to Belgians. It
+seemed to us a suitable coincidence that it should
+come, even indirectly, from the King. The Borough
+Council of Camberwell was, if my memory serves
+me rightly, the next to offer us beds for Belgian
+refugees. They had organized Dulwich Baths as a
+hospital, and they placed at our disposal between
+80 and 100 beds. Battersea followed their example.
+Private offers were added to these, and in two or
+three days we had a couple of hundred beds upon
+which we could count.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>We reached the third day of our existence before
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>any news came of the ship-load of refugees for
+whose reception the Committee had been so hastily
+organized. It was on Wednesday evening at about
+half-past seven o’clock, as we were separating after
+a heavy day’s work, that a telegram was brought
+in saying, “One thousand refugees arriving Folkestone
+to-night. Can you take 500 in London tomorrow?”
+The moment had come. We afterwards
+discovered that this was not “the” ship, and as a
+matter of fact Mr. Wintour’s refugees never did
+come over in a special transport chartered for them.
+I give you our impressions, however, only as we
+received them then. We had provided with the
+greatest difficulty for 250. To provide suddenly
+for 500 more seemed at first sight impossible. But
+to let you have one instance of the early work I
+will describe how it was done.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Among the offers which had been made to us
+was one from the Army and Navy Stores proposing
+to lend us an empty shirt factory conveniently
+situated just opposite Victoria Station. It was in a
+perfectly sanitary condition, clean, with gas, light,
+and water laid on, but stark empty. At eight
+o’clock on Wednesday evening we accepted the
+offer. Mrs. Walter Cave took direction in this
+particular act of energy, and I believe she was up
+all that night. The Army and Navy Stores let us
+have beds at cost price. The Chairman of the
+Rowton Houses lent us crockery and linen. Willing
+help came from every side, and the result was
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>achieved that before three on the following afternoon
+the shirt factory had been converted into a
+hostel, where 250 beds were made up with clean
+sheets and pillow-cases; a kitchen was arranged
+downstairs with eight cooking-stoves; dining-tables
+were ready laid; and a hot dinner for several
+hundred people awaited the arrival of the refugees.
+Our first batch of 250 arrived there that afternoon.
+We disposed of the others in different places, and
+from that day, though we continued to receive
+refugees in London at the rate of several hundreds
+per day, and were often at our wits’ end what to
+do, not one who reached our hands was ever left
+without food and lodging.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The experience of this first week gave us the
+formation of the principal Departments of the War
+Refugees Committee. I do not propose now to
+detain you with any full description of our organization.
+For anyone who is interested the details are
+recorded in the Blue-Book issued by the Departmental
+Committee of the Local Government Board
+appointed to consider and report on questions arising
+in connection with the Reception and Employment
+of the Belgian Refugees in this country. I
+will indicate merely the framework of the machine
+which circumstances immediately brought into
+operation.</p>
+
+<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span></div>
+<div class='section'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div><span class='large'>LADY LUGARD’S HOSTELS</span></div>
+    <div><span class='large'>FOR BELGIAN REFUGEES.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'><i>Committee</i>—<i>Lady Lugard.</i></div>
+      <div class='line in11'><i>The Hon. Mrs. Roland Leigh.</i></div>
+      <div class='line in11'><i>Stuart Hogg, Esq.</i></div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'>These Hostels have been instituted by Lady
+Lugard for the reception of Belgians who have hitherto
+lived on their private means but have come to the end
+of their resources. Also for some of a poorer class who
+have received hospitality offered for a definite period
+which has now come to an end.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>There are at present eleven houses, accommodating
+a total of about 400 people. Two of these are
+more in the nature of hospitals, the rest are carried on
+like private hotels or boarding-houses. Care is taken to
+make the life as pleasant as possible. Guests are placed
+in the different houses according to their social rank;
+there is a capable manageress in every house, a Belgian
+cook, and to a large extent the other servants are Belgian.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>In many cases, where the refugees have some
+small means of their own, it has been found desirable
+to assist in payment of the rent of flats, or by direct
+contributions. At present 125 are helped in these ways.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Lady Lugard’s aim has been to make each house
+a “little corner of Belgium,” as one of the guests
+happily expressed it. There is a committee of ladies,
+who visit these houses regularly and see that the
+inmates are as happy and comfortable as possible.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>All expenditure is accounted for to the Central
+Committee, and care is taken that there is no waste.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The scheme has a certain amount of financial
+help from the War Refugees Committee, but all expenses
+of furnishing, rent, lighting, and general upkeep are
+borne by Lady Lugard’s Committee.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Your help is asked to carry on this undertaking,
+which is one of the attempts to repay a small portion of
+the immense debt we owe to the unhappy Belgian nation.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Cheques and postal orders should be made out
+to Lady Lugard, and addressed to her at</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-r'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'><span class='sc'>51, Rutland Gate, S.W.</span></div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>Our first need was obviously a Card Index and
+Correspondence Department. This Department has
+since been placed under the very efficient management
+of Mr. Arthur Chadwick, assisted by Mr.
+Berks and Mr. Barsdorf, and with the Cashier’s
+Department under our excellent cashier, Mr.
+Bourne, has completely rescued us from the reproaches
+of the first days.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>We needed a Transport Department to meet
+refugees at the stations to convey them to and from
+the Refuges. We were helped at first by Mr.
+F. M. Guedalla, who also did yeoman service with
+Mr. Basil Williams and others in the reception of
+the refugees at Folkestone. By the kindness of Sir
+Albert Stanley and the London General Omnibus
+Company the services of one of the officers of that
+Company, Mr. Henry Campbell, were placed at
+our disposal, and under Mr. Campbell this Department
+has become one of the most important
+and efficient branches of our practical organization.
+Mr. Campbell’s grip and comprehension of the work
+of the War Refugees Committee is so complete
+that I believe if the whole Committee were swept
+away and Mr. Campbell were left standing, the
+work would still be satisfactorily carried on.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Our next obvious need was an organized system
+of fitting the refugees into the offers of hospitality
+which were received for them. This has remained
+from the beginning the most complicated and
+difficult work we have had to do. A Department,
+afterwards known as our Allocation Department,
+was organized at once under Lady Gladstone,
+Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, and Mrs. Gilbert Samuel,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>who have been assisted in the work by an army of
+willing volunteers. The work of this Department,
+of which a beginning had been made in the Belgian
+Consulate even before the War Refugees Committee
+came into existence, has since been carried
+on in four main divisions. There has been our
+Central Allocation Department, of which the direction
+has remainded in the hands of Mrs. Gilbert
+Samuel. There has been a very important development
+of subsidiary branches in the Rink under
+Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, helped of course by many
+willing workers, to all of whom she would, I am
+sure, wish to offer a tribute of gratitude. There has
+been the Allocation of the Belgian Consulate, also
+carried on at Aldwych, under the direction of the
+Misses Rothschild and a group of helpers, and
+there has been the Allocation of the Catholic
+Women’s League, under the direction of Miss
+Streeter, working always in co-operation with
+Aldwych, but carried on from their own headquarters
+in Victoria Street. In addition to these
+there has been also the Allocation, carried on independently
+of Aldwych, by the Jewish community,
+who from their own private offers have provided
+for upwards of 6,000 people. The Catholic ladies
+have allocated upwards of 6,000. In the Miss
+Rothschild’s room at Aldwych some 30,000 have
+been either allocated or helped in other ways. Our
+own two branches of Allocation have since the
+beginning of the movement arranged for the placing
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>of between 50,000 and 60,000 persons. In all its
+branches the War Refugees Committee has found
+homes for about 100,000 persons.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>A Department taking its rise in the same necessities
+as the Allocation Department proper is the
+Department of Local Committees, which early in
+the movement formed themselves throughout the
+country for the better management of local offers
+of hospitality, while working in correspondence
+with Aldwych. This Department at Aldwych has
+been from the beginning under the supervision of
+Lord Lytton, who has directed it with an ability
+and devotion for which the War Refugees Committee
+have every reason to be grateful. The
+number of Local Committees with which his Department
+maintains touch is now nearly 2,000.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>To these Departments one other of great importance
+was added in the first days. It was our
+Clothing Department, with headquarters at 23,
+Warwick Square. Here Lady Emmott, ably assisted
+by Lady MacDonnell and other devoted ladies, has
+been enabled by the generosity of the public to
+distribute nearly a million garments, including
+much-needed boots and shoes.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The creation of our different Departments was,
+as I have said, immediately imposed upon us by
+the conditions of the problem with which we were
+dealing. The general work of direction and coordination,
+and the creation of new means of meeting
+each new necessity of the situation had also to
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>grow from the simple beginnings of the early days.
+It was soon found that it was desirable to place
+the Management under one direction, and it was
+decided to ask Lord Gladstone, who was prepared
+to give the time and devotion necessary to such a
+work, to accept a position which is, I suppose,
+equivalent to that usually held in a commercial
+company by the Managing Director. Mr. Morgan
+was at first associated in this direction, but found
+himself afterwards unable to devote the necessary
+time, and Lord Gladstone has from the beginning
+borne the brunt of the central work of the Committee.
+It is only in a later chapter, to which I
+shall have occasion to refer, that he has been
+assisted in a Management Committee by Lord
+Lytton, the Rt. Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P.,
+and Mr. A. Allen, M.P., to whom was added in
+the capacity of Honorary Secretary Mr. A. Maudslay,
+who has been from the beginning one of the
+most constant and devoted of our voluntary workers.
+I should mention here that Mr. Maudslay was
+among the most active of Mrs. Lyttelton’s helpers
+in the first organization of the Rink, and that at a
+later period he succeeded our first Secretary, Mr.
+Hennessy Cook, as Honorary Secretary to the War
+Refugees Committee. Lord Gladstone’s position has
+been no sinecure, and we all, if I may be permitted to
+say it, give ungrudging recognition to the absolute
+sincerity and unselfishness of purpose with which
+he has performed his work. We do not claim as a
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>Committee—and I am sure Lord Gladstone would
+heartily agree with me—to have been perfectly
+organized or perfectly directed, or that our staff,
+amounting at one time to upwards of 500 devoted
+volunteers, have always perfectly understood or
+perfectly carried out the intentions and instructions
+of headquarters. We are willing to accept in a
+chastened spirit all reasonable criticism. The only
+claim we are concerned to make is that the War
+Refugees Committee throughout has been a willing
+instrument. In ourselves we have been nothing.
+The power by which we have been worked has
+been the country. We are proud only to have been
+privileged to represent a movement which may
+claim to take its place in history as the consolation
+of a nation by a nation.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>It is as a task of consolation that we have from
+the beginning conceived of our work. I regret to
+have detained you so long with a description of the
+machinery by which the work was done. I take
+you back now to the days when the first refugees,
+fleeing from the terror of fire and sword, began to
+reach our shores. These refugees were different
+from the refugees who are now arriving. They
+had actually borne the first onslaught of German
+fury. Men had seen their wives and daughters
+shot, and worse than shot, before their eyes.
+Fathers and mothers had seen their little children
+trampled to death under German feet. Old and
+young had alike been driven before the bayonet and
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>placed as shields to protect the enemy from Belgian
+bullets. Some had been forced to dig graves,
+and even to bury men who were not yet dead. All
+had been smoked and burned out of their pillaged
+homes, holding themselves lucky if they were not
+forced back to be consumed in the funeral pyres
+of their domestic possessions. It has become the
+fashion now to cast doubt upon the authenticity
+of deeds fit only for the annals of the Middle Ages.
+Those of us who helped at that time nightly to
+receive the refugees as they arrived can never forget
+the tales of inconceivable horror which were poured
+into our ears, nor the convincing simplicity of
+narration which made it impossible to doubt their
+general truth. I remember the first refugee with
+whom I happened to speak about herself. It was
+not a horrible case—on the contrary, quite simple—but
+it brought home to me with a shock of realization
+what was happening within an ordinary day’s
+journey of London. It was only a mother feeding
+her child with a basin of bread and milk in one of
+our Refuges. I asked her where she came from.
+She said “Charleroi.” “Then you have seen the
+fighting?” “Oh, yes, I carried him—indicating
+the baby—out under the German guns.” It was
+nothing. She had had the luck to escape, but the
+contrast between the peacefulness of her actual
+occupation and her words brought home what she
+had escaped from. In the same Refuge on a later
+day there was a man whose face was like the face
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>of a tragic fate. He did not speak, he did not
+move. The ladies who were working in the Refuge
+approached him for some time in vain. One reminded
+him that he had his wife, while many had
+lost their wives, and at last he spoke. “Yes,” he
+said, “I have my wife! But we had five children,
+and we have not one left. Four of the little ones
+were trampled to death under the feet of a German
+regiment, and my little girl, my eldest, fourteen
+years old, was given to the German soldiery, who
+misused her before my eyes. Afterwards they took
+her away with the regiment.” And he fell back
+to the only thing he seemed able to say, “We had
+five children—we have not one left.” The stories
+which we heard at that time, daily and nightly,
+from not one alone, but from practically every
+refugee who reached us, were such as surpass all
+imagination of horror and brutality. We heard
+them; we became in a sense accustomed to hearing
+them, but the details of many were such as I could
+not possibly repeat in a public assembly such as
+this. An observant friend who accompanied me
+one day to a Refuge said, as we came out, “These
+people look as if they had all seen ghosts.” They
+<i>had</i> seen ghosts! They had seen spectres of
+carnage, cruelty, lust, and brutality—such evil
+spirits as, thank God, are not often let loose upon
+the face of earth. You will readily understand
+that to us who were with them at that time, who
+heard these stories every day, no extenuation of
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>German conduct which can ever be produced will
+efface the impression that these awful things were
+literally true. It was also abundantly evident that
+they were not the isolated acts of brutal or drunken
+individuals. Evidence was unanimous, and to our
+minds conclusive, that the crimes were committed
+in pursuance of a general order from above.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>I will not hold your imagination in this atmosphere.
+Let it be placed to the credit of twentieth-century
+civilization that the universal abhorrence
+aroused by the conduct of the German army towards
+civilians was such as to force German
+authorities to a recognition of the mistake they
+had committed. Orders to terrorize the population
+were apparently withdrawn, and, so far as we are
+aware, the brutalities of the first weeks of the
+campaign have for the present ceased.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>It was on the 24th of August that the War
+Refugees Committee received its first refugees.
+Until the 9th of September they were received, as
+I have told you, in our own Refuges, where we
+tried to make them as comfortable as we could.
+Some little difficulty and hesitation existed at first
+as to the question of facilitating the transport of
+refugees from Belgium. But this and all other
+doubt upon the matter was set at rest by the public
+offer of the hospitality of the nation which was
+made, as you will remember, by the Prime Minister
+in the House of Commons on the 9th of September.
+From that day the Government has stood behind
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>the movement, and the War Refugees Committee
+has worked in close and friendly relation with the
+Local Government Board.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The first chapter of Government intervention
+was to relieve the War Refugees Committee of the
+expense and difficulty of providing Refuges in
+London.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c008'><sup>[1]</sup></a> The Government took the Alexandra
+Palace, and in that and other available public
+institutions it organized immediately, under the
+Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Board of
+Guardians, Refuges which had a total capacity of
+about 8,000 persons. After the fall of Antwerp,
+Earl’s Court Camp, with a further capacity of 4,000
+persons, was added to the government Refuges.
+Up to the middle of September the War Refugees
+Committee had had difficulty in receiving as many
+as 500 a day. Since that time, so far as the great
+majority, which consisted of working class refugees,
+are concerned, the War Refugees Committee has
+been relieved of anxiety. The first needs of shelter
+and food were supplied, and admirably supplied,
+by the Government Refuges. I should like in
+passing to offer my tribute of praise to the splendid
+work done by the officials alike of the Metropolitan
+Asylums Board and the Board of Guardians. I
+was for many weeks in close relation day and night
+with what was being done, and I can speak from
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>personal observation of the devoted zeal, the kindness
+of heart, and the untiring industry with which
+the work of receiving, housing, and feeding the
+refugees was carried out.</p>
+
+<div class='footnote' id='f1'>
+<p class='c006'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. For a full description of what was done by the Local
+Government Board the reader is referred to White Book, Cd.
+7763.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'>The organization of the Alexandra Palace, where
+at first about 1,500 were received, may be taken as
+a sample of the rest. The Alexandra Palace, as
+you know, is a large glass building originally
+intended for public recreation, and conveniently
+situated in its own grounds on a hill overlooking
+the North of London. Its central halls, with their
+merry-go-rounds and swing-boats, lent themselves
+readily to the reception of refugees, and in the
+early days visitors who went to condole with the
+victims of tragic misfortune were usually saluted
+with shouts of delight proceeding from children
+profiting with all the unconsciousness of their age
+by the unusual opportunities of enjoyment! The
+glass roofs of the building admitted sunshine to
+every corner. One of the central halls was converted
+into a great dining-room, where sufficient
+and comfortable meals were served with order and
+regularity. Beyond the dining-room there was a
+nursery and hospital, bright with white beds and
+flowers. Beyond the hospital a large hall has been
+converted into a bathroom with curtained cubicles,
+where upwards of 100 baths, fitted with hot and
+cold water, are at the disposal of the refugees.
+Another large room is used as a schoolroom and
+kindergarten for the children. A cinema theatre
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>was converted into a chapel. Rooms were set aside
+for workrooms and the distribution of clothing.
+The many rooms surrounding the central halls
+were converted into dormitories holding each from
+60 to 100 beds. In one room the beds had pink
+coverings, in the next they had blue. Screens
+covered with chintz gave a certain privacy to groups
+of beds. Crucifixes were fixed on the walls. Everything
+that could be done to give a homely and
+pleasant aspect to the place was done with the utmost
+goodwill. These were the arrangements
+made before the fall of Antwerp for the general
+mass of refugees. Upstairs in a more private
+wing of the building there was accommodation,
+with a comfortably furnished sitting-room and
+dining-room, for about 100 persons who might for
+any reason on their first arrival be distinguished
+from the ordinary crowd. Before the fall of Antwerp,
+since which period the rush of refugees has
+caused too great a pressure of overcrowding, there
+was a grace, almost a certain charm, in the arrangements.
+Her Majesty the Queen showed her sympathy
+with the refugees by visiting them in the
+Alexandra Palace, and expressed her gracious approval
+of the arrangements which had been made
+for them.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Alexandra Palace was, of course, only one place.
+The spirit which dictated its organization presided
+also over the organization of the other Refuges.
+At Alexandra Palace the ladies of Wood Green
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>and the locality gave devoted service in the development
+of Clothing, Sewing, and other departments
+designed for the comfort of the refugees. At Earl’s
+Court Camp the ladies of the Local Government
+Board have taken these departments under their
+charge, and have devoted themselves to the development
+of educational and other facilities.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The first refugees arrived usually in a state of
+absolute destitution. Their constant prayer was
+that they might be immediately allowed to work
+and to earn for themselves some portion back of
+what they had lost. But an opinion was at that
+time held that no attempt should be made to obtain
+employment for these refugees in the ordinary
+labour market of the country, and the lavish hospitality
+which was offered to them encouraged the
+hope that they might be amply provided for by
+private beneficence during the continuance of the
+war.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The first work of the War Refugees Committee
+when the refugees arrived in the Government
+Refuges was, therefore, to supply them as far as
+possible with immediate necessaries. They needed
+everything. Besides the substantial requirements
+of clothes and shoes, they wanted combs, brushes,
+soap, hair-pins, boot-laces, braces, needles, cotton,
+thimbles—everything that even the poorest find
+necessary in daily life. The men, of course, urgently
+wanted tobacco; the women wanted knitting-needles
+and wool to knit. We did our best to
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>supply all these, and among the small articles
+which at that time were distributed freely none
+were more eagerly accepted than rosaries. We
+gave them away by thousands. The exodus had
+been so sudden that they had apparently in many
+cases been left behind, and men and women alike
+among the first arrivals from the Walloon country
+seemed anxious to possess themselves of this usual
+accompaniment of prayer.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>There are subjects about which one hesitates to
+speak in public, yet I would like just to place on
+record the impression we received from these first
+refugees of simple faith. They seemed themselves
+to realize, in the tragic extremity of their distress,
+that they had lost everything except their God,
+and I cannot easily convey the touching fervour of
+the prayers in the chapels of the Refuges at which
+I once or twice incidentally assisted. Piety,
+courage, extraordinary fortitude, and overflowing
+heartfelt gratitude for all that was being done for
+them in England were the principal characteristics
+that enlisted our sympathy and admiration for our
+guests.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>I know it may be said that the heroic note has
+not been consistently sustained. That is only to
+say that human nature remains human in all circumstances.
+And I would ask, if Oxford had
+suffered the fate of Louvain, if Canterbury had
+been destroyed instead of Rheims, if Manchester
+or Birmingham or Leeds had been bombarded and
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>their population driven out homeless and penniless
+to foreign shores, do you believe that the whole
+exodus would have been an exodus of heroes?
+From the days of Israel onward some members of
+every great migration have been found to murmur
+and to cry for quails as well as manna in the
+desert. None grieve for this occasional backsliding
+more sincerely than the majority of the better-disposed
+Belgians themselves. I only wish to bear
+testimony to the other side, which I have myself
+seen and admired, of patient and even magnificent
+endurance.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The refugees were supposed to remain in the
+London Refuges for a period of only three to five
+days at the outside. Once rested and re-fitted it
+was the work of the War Refugees Committee to
+pass them on to the permanent homes so cordially
+offered by the hospitality of the country. It was in
+these homes that their real reception awaited them,
+and in these that was prepared for them by the
+kindness of individual English hearts the “haven
+where they would be.” With what happened after
+they left our hands we had, of course, little
+or nothing to do. Everyone gave to his own
+guests according to the fullness of his means. We
+received many letters of enthusiastic thanks expressing
+the content and joy of the refugees, but our
+business was only to organize the passing of the
+refugees from the London Refuges to their homes.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The brunt of this work fell, of course, on our
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>Allocation Department, which, as the pressure
+grew more and more acute through the months of
+September and October, was obliged steadily to
+increase its forces. It employed at one time upwards
+of 100 volunteers. The work of these ladies
+and gentlemen consisted in receiving from the
+Correspondence Department overnight cards upon
+which the offers of hospitality made to the Committee
+were indexed. With the cards they went
+on the following day into the Refuges, and subsequently
+into hotels in which better-class refugees
+were housed, and their object was—acting with as
+much tact and sympathy as possible—to find from
+the information given on the cards the most suitable
+accommodation for the many differing parties
+of refugees who presented themselves. At the beginning
+of the movement refugees had to be dealt
+with only at the rate of 100 or 200 per day. From
+the date of the public offer of national hospitality
+made by the Government, the number increased
+steadily until, during the rush created by the fall
+of Antwerp, which marked the maximum pressure
+of the movement, it became necessary for the
+Allocation Department to deal with upwards of
+2,000 persons every day. It is difficult for the
+public to realize the magnitude of the task thus
+performed. It involved not only the delicate personal
+decisions which had to be made by each individual
+Allocator, but it carried with it all the
+complicated arrangements of registration, transport,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>and warning of hosts. All four branches
+of the Allocation Department were at this time
+worked to their utmost.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The arrangements for transport of these separate
+branches fell upon the Transport Department.
+Every refugee who arrived from the Continent had
+to be met and taken to a Refuge or a hotel. Every
+refugee who left one of the Refuges or a hotel to
+take up the hospitality allotted to him in the
+country had to be provided with a pass over the
+railway, had to be convoyed to the railway station,
+and his host had to be warned at what hour and at
+what station he was to be received. During the
+stress created by the fall of Antwerp, when upwards
+of 4,000 refugees arrived in one day in
+London by trainloads from the Continent, and as
+many as 2,000 had to be sent in small individual
+groups to different stations of the British Isles, a
+total of 6,000 had to be handled every day! It has
+been estimated that during this period as many as
+8,000 and 10,000 refugees crossed the Channel
+daily to our shores. No warning nor preparation
+could be given as to the numbers to be dealt with.
+While the crisis lasted they poured in day and
+night, taxing the energies of the whole organization
+almost to breaking-point. Not only Transport
+and Allocation, but Clothing, Correspondence,
+and Local Committees, with all their subsidiary
+branches, were heavily overworked. They bore the
+strain. There was no break-down. We were able
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>to meet and deal with the crisis. It may readily be
+imagined that in work of a delicate nature accomplished
+under such pressure, some mistakes were
+inevitable; but we worked with the consoling
+thought present to our minds, that if the public
+could have realized the conditions under which the
+work was done, it would have been surprised
+rather at the few than at the many errors into
+which we fell.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The fall of Antwerp brought us to a new chapter
+of our work, of which I would have much to say
+but that I have already kept you longer than I
+would have wished. I must touch only as briefly
+as possible on the aspects of the question which
+now present themselves.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The crisis lasted only a couple of weeks. The
+occupation of Ostend by the Germans on October
+17th closed the Belgian coast and stopped the
+daily transport service. Since that time refugees
+have been only able to reach us by way of Holland,
+and though this country has continued to provide
+such facilities as are possible for their transit, the
+figures of the daily arrivals have fallen considerably.
+The total for November was the lowest for
+any month since the beginning of the war. In
+December and January the numbers again mounted,
+giving a total of 12,000 for December and 14,000
+for January. Refugees are still, notwithstanding
+the dangers of mines and submarines and the prohibition
+of our blockade zone, arriving in numbers
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>which are to be counted daily in three figures. But
+the rush is over. We are no longer working under
+the same conditions of pressure.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>There are noticeable also some other remarkable
+differences. We are working now with a different
+class of refugee. The simple country folk of the
+first exodus have given place to the urban population
+of the great towns, and they come to us under
+different conditions. The early refugees had, as I
+have told you, suffered in their own persons all the
+worst horrors of war. Since the fall of Antwerp
+the flight has been rather—though not of course
+wholly—from “the wrath to come.” Many refugees
+are fleeing from what they fear may happen
+rather than from what has actually happened. I
+speak chiefly for the moment of the working-classes.
+Many of those now coming have been attracted to
+this country by the accounts sent back in the first
+moments of relief and gratitude by the earlier refugees.
+In the Refuges and Hostels we saw many
+of the postcards written by the first refugees, and
+they represented this country and people as something
+so near Paradise and the angels, that expectation
+based upon such description could hardly
+fail of disappointment. It need not therefore be a
+matter of surprise if some difference is observable
+between the attitude and tone of the refugees housed
+in the Government Refuges to-day, and those with
+whom the same Refuges were filled in the earlier
+stages of the movement.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>The gradual development of the situation which
+has brought us a different class of refugee has also
+brought about a very important modification of
+opinion with regard to the conditions of their reception.
+It has been decided that the employment
+of refugees instead of being deprecated should now
+be encouraged, and that instead of depending for
+subsistence on the hospitality of the country they
+should, as far as possible, be enabled to support
+themselves. A Government Committee has been
+appointed, as you know, under the Chairmanship
+of Sir Ernest Hatch, to consider the conditions
+under which effect can be given to this new view
+of the situation. Belgian Labour Bureaux working
+in connection with the Central Labour Bureaux
+have been established in the Government Refuges,
+as also in the Rink at Aldwych. Recruiting Bureaux
+have been established in the Government Refuges,
+by means of which Belgians of military age are
+enabled to join their colours and return to the front
+at Flanders. By these agencies in conjunction
+with the Government Refuges, and other forms of
+Government Relief for urgent cases the problem
+of the reception of working class refugees may, I
+think, be said to have been met and disposed of.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Outside these questions the problem with which
+since Christmas we have been most acutely preoccupied
+is the problem of giving suitable help to
+the urgent needs of the propertied and professional
+classes. This is a class with which I have myself
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>been thrown into close and constant touch, and the
+sorrows and difficulties of their position are very
+vivid to me. They have suffered, of course, horribly
+in regard to their material possessions, and the
+numbers increase daily of persons accustomed to
+live in the comfort of comparative affluence who
+are reduced to absolute penury. Such cases call
+for the sincerest sympathy and for practical help.
+Where only material possessions are concerned
+they do not, it must be recognized, make quite the
+same poignant appeal to elemental emotions that
+was made by the earlier refugees. But there is
+seldom a day in which some special case does not
+present itself. A day or two ago it was a case of
+a man of good position and once ample means
+who had seen his wife and daughter shot by the
+Germans, and who came in search of some educational
+facilities for his little boy, the only member
+of the family now left to him. He was entirely
+penniless. The next day it was a manufacturer
+from Louvain who had shared in all the horrors
+attending the destruction of that town. His town
+house and his country house, with all that they
+contained, had been destroyed. He himself had
+been taken as a hostage by the Germans. He was
+three times blindfolded and ordered to be shot,
+and three times at the last moment the order was
+countermanded. He was beaten and spat upon.
+He was forced to march with other Belgians as a
+covering rank in front of the German advance. As
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>he said in very quietly relating these experiences:
+“It is doubted whether the Germans really used
+Belgian civilians as a covering-shield for their
+soldiers. I <i>know</i>, because they have used me.
+They put us in the front of their attack, and
+bullets whistled between us as we advanced.” But
+these things were all as nothing to the anguish of
+knowing that the soldiery which had marched him
+away in one direction had taken his wife away in
+another. It was impossible for him to know anything
+of her fate. After some days of marching in
+front of the German troops they came in touch
+with Belgian outposts. He was able to effect his
+escape, and he reached Antwerp through the
+Belgian lines. Still unable to obtain any news of
+his wife, he advertised in the hope that the news
+he gave of himself might reach her eyes. It did.
+After long delay the news was brought to him that
+she was alive, that she had escaped without serious
+injury from the Germans, and that she was in
+hiding in the neighbourhood of Louvain. To
+reach her he went on foot from Antwerp to
+Louvain, passing as he could through the German
+lines, hiding at times in ditches and swamps, wading
+through rivers to avoid the guarded roads. He
+told me the whole story with absolute calm, and
+only when he came to the climax of their meeting
+he suddenly broke down—“My wife!” he said,
+“she had been living in the woods and fields
+with practically nothing to eat. She was a black
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>skeleton, mere skin drawn over her bones.” He
+could say no more. I didn’t wish that he should.
+My business was merely to find him some means
+of living now that he and his wife were together in
+a place of safety. You can understand that after
+hearing such a story one’s only feeling is that
+peace and security must somehow be assured.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>In the early part of the movement such cases as
+these were provided for by private hospitality, and
+I come now to the greatest change of all which
+the movement has undergone. The movement of
+private hospitality, which has provided from first
+to last for a figure approaching to something like
+a quarter of a million refugees, has, as was to a
+certain extent inevitable, exhausted its first impulse.
+About Christmas time we began to realize that the
+offers of hospitality had ceased. No fresh offers
+came, and hosts who had previously had Belgians
+in their houses wrote that they would shortly be
+needing this accommodation for other purposes.
+Our Allocation Department became a Department
+of Re-Allocation. Gifts of clothing also sensibly
+diminished.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>The funds of the War Refugees Committee,
+which have been devoted to the relief of Belgians
+in England, have never been very great. Public
+contributions in money have been more usually
+given to the Belgian Relief Fund, which is entirely
+devoted to the relief of Belgians in Belgium. We
+have sometimes thought that the public did not
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>clearly understand the distinction between the two
+Funds. Our wealth has consisted mainly in offers
+of hospitality and gifts in kind. When these began
+to cease we saw ourselves in danger of being unable
+to continue our work for want of means, and
+this situation introduced the present and latest
+chapter upon which we have entered.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>I am sorry that I am not able at present to enter
+into a full explanation of schemes which are as yet
+imperfectly developed. A time will come when all
+necessary information will be freely given. For our
+present purpose I will ask you only to take from me
+that we have under certain conditions a command
+of funds which enable us to give relief in cases of
+strict necessity. The money so available is not to
+be regarded as a substitute for, but as a supplement
+to, private generosity. It is in certain cases
+sufficient for the necessities of a working man. The
+part of private generosity for better-class refugees
+still remains to bring the bare necessities of life up
+to the standard which the nation would wish to
+offer in such cases as those I have just now cited.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>There are many obvious ways in which this can
+be done. Among the most generally successful so
+far has been the organization of large houses on
+the basis of gratuitous hotels. I have myself
+organized two or three such houses, notably,
+one at Harrington House in Kensington Palace
+Gardens, lent to me for the purpose by Lord Harrington,
+another at Hambro House in Prince’s
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>Gate, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Eric Hambro, and a
+third in the King’s Weigh House Parsonage, furnished
+and lent by the congregation of the King’s
+Weigh House Church in Duke Street. In these
+three houses I have been able to receive about 120
+refugees, who make with regard to them very
+charming expressions of content. What I have
+done has also been done by many others. Houses
+of this description are springing up like mushrooms
+through the country, and it has been thought that
+many people who are no longer able to entertain
+Belgian refugees in their own homes may be willing
+to contribute towards a system of organized
+hospitality under which suitable homes can be
+provided.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Another way of meeting the necessities of the
+class of refugees of whom we are now speaking is
+by paying the rent of furnished flats, in which a
+very small grant is sometimes enough to render
+domestic life a possibility. Among the propertied
+and professional classes there are some who have
+still some small resources. For these the active
+brain of Mrs. Lyttelton has devised, in consultation
+with Lord Gladstone, a scheme which she is
+administering as a branch of the War Refugees
+Committee, of flats furnished by the Committee,
+and placed at the lowest possible prices at the service
+of the refugees. The scheme deserves a fuller
+description than I am able to give it. In all schemes
+of hospitable relief the National Food Supply, the
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>Belgian Refugee Food Supply, and other charitable
+organizations, of which the gratuitous food is
+in great part contributed as a free gift by our
+Colonies, play an important part.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>I would like to have been able to do justice to
+other institutions for the assistance of refugees
+which have from the beginning of the movement
+developed as branches of the various Departments
+at Aldwych. I can only permit myself just to name
+the Education Department, under Lady Gladstone,
+Mr. Englehart (of Leper Island fame), Father
+Christie and the Abbé Michiele, where, by a movement
+of Educational hospitality offered by the
+public schools, the Catholic institutions, and the
+universities of the country, free education has been
+provided for nearly 2,000 Belgian young people.
+In this movement I am glad to be able to say that
+Eton, Oxford, and Cambridge have handsomely
+done their part.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>Another branch of activity which has been of
+the greatest value throughout the whole movement
+has been the Health Department, which, under
+Mrs. George Montagu, assisted by Miss Page, the
+daughter of the American Ambassador, has given
+help and relief to hundreds of cases of the sick and
+otherwise disabled. In connection with this department
+there is also a dispensary, where gratuitous
+medicine and medical advice from Belgian
+doctors can be obtained. Nor is it only in the
+Allocation and Health Departments that secondary
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>branches of utility have blossomed forth. The
+Rink is full of useful minor institutions, brought
+into being by the necessities of the situation. The
+Transport Department has many subsidiary activities.
+Work done for <i>réformé</i> soldiers who have
+served their country to the limits of their strength,
+and work done for “undesirables” who can serve
+no country, are at different ends of the scale, alike
+branches of benevolent utility.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>A Department which is probably doing in its
+way as much humane work as any other is what
+we call the “Missing Relatives” Department. It
+is divided into two sections—the Poste Restante
+section and the section which deals with Lost
+Relatives. We receive a great number of letters
+addressed to refugees, care of our Committee. For
+a time they lay unclaimed. Then our Correspondence
+Department conceived the idea of endeavouring
+to trace their owners, in order that they might be
+forwarded. We have, of course, now registered the
+addresses of many thousands of refugees. By the
+courtesy of the Registrar-General we are allowed
+to search also daily the files of Somerset House,
+and in the last three weeks alone over 500 letters
+have been traced and forwarded to their owners.
+In the “Lost Relatives” section all urgent cases,
+such, for instance, as a father or mother searching
+for their lost children, or a husband his wife, etc.,
+are handled immediately by our Correspondence
+Department, who make every effort to trace the
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>missing person. The machinery which is used for
+tracing the letters is put in operation, and I am
+glad to say that we frequently succeed in finding
+and uniting the members of families who have lost
+each other in the flight.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>In the Belgian Consulate room Monsieur Grumbar
+and the two Misses Baschewitz, with their helpers,
+continue to earn the gratitude of their compatriots
+by their constant and willing service. Of the Consulate
+as such I do not, of course, venture to speak.
+From the beginning of the movement it has had
+offices under the same roof as the War Refugees
+Committee, and has been closely associated with
+our work. Its own work is outside the scope of
+the present paper.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>I cannot leave this branch of my subject without
+mentioning collectively, as I only wish I could
+mention individually, the admirable quality of the
+voluntary work which has been freely given in
+every department. The few developments I have
+enumerated only serve to indicate the activity that
+exists, and they have nearly all been carried out
+by volunteer effort. Those of us who happen to
+be at the head of Departments are spoken of, and
+our work obtains recognition and gratitude often
+far beyond its deserts. I would like to say that
+our work would have been absolutely impossible
+had it not been for the devoted, generous, and
+regular support of hundreds of volunteers who
+have given every bit as much as we have given,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>and who have been content to do it—to come
+early, to stay late, to work day after day unflinchingly
+at the least interesting tasks, to spend
+their strength, their emotions, their money, and
+their time in the background, so to speak, of our
+organization, without a thought of anything but
+the help that they could give. These volunteers
+have come from every rank. I have mentioned
+500. Had we wanted 5,000 we could have had
+them. I am almost ashamed even to speak of
+thanks or recognition where it has been so little
+sought. I would only say of many of our unmentioned
+helpers that their names should be written
+in letters of gold, were it possible that any true
+record could be kept of the service which this
+movement has called forth.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>All the Departments I have mentioned and many
+others are still active at Aldwych. Lord Gladstone,
+Lord Lytton, Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Allen, who
+have been associated in the Management Committee
+since the opening or our latest chapter, have their
+time fully occupied. There is no sign of any
+diminution of work. Neither is there on our part
+any diminution of energy or of interest in the work
+which still remains to be done.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'>You may be inclined to think from some of the
+particulars which I have given you of the latest
+chapter of the work that the heroic moment of
+the movement has passed—for England as well as
+for our guests. I would only venture to say that
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>in heroic moments resolutions are conceived—it
+is for subsequent acts to give them shape. In
+the details which I have given you we are simply
+working out the national resolution that the exiles
+now in our midst shall be cared for, helped, and
+protected to the limits of our ability until the day
+dawns for them, when they may return to the
+homes they love. We see no end, and we desire
+to see no end, to our exertions but the day of
+repatriation. Be that day near or far, it is our
+hope to continue our work till it is reached, and
+we look with quiet confidence and absolute assurance
+to the public we know to give us the full
+support of its sympathy and its help.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div><span class='large'>CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.</span></div>
+    <div><span class='large'>TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003'>
+</div>
+<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'>
+
+<div class='chapter ph2'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+ <ul class='ul_1 c002'>
+    <li>Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77327 ***</div>
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-10-19 23:08:40 GMT -->
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77327
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77327)