[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] you allow me to
relate an experience of my own which entirely supports the statements in Miss Gertrude Kingston's article, to which Dr. Courtenay-Dunn takes excep- tion in your issue of April 25th ?
A few years ago one of my two servants was taken seriously
ill as a result of her own imprudence and vanity. The doctor, although sympathetic with my difficulty, could not consent to the girl's removal to the hospital, some fifteen miles away. I accordingly, at the doctor's suggestion, wired for her mother to come and nurse her. She replied that she could not come unless her return fare was paid and she was paid for her services ! I therefore procured a nurse, who remained three weeks, and I had also, of course, to engage another cook, so that I was feeding three people in place of one, and paying the nurse's fee in addition.
When the National Insurance Scheme was inaugurated we were assured that the weekly contribution would cover the whole of the employer's liability towards a sick servant, and it therefore seems, as Miss Kingston points out, grossly unjust that there should be no provision whereby the employer could be compensated for expenses incurred if the servant is unable to be removed to a hospital.—I am, Sir, &c., M. E. F.
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