SANDBAGS : AN APPEAL FROM OXFORD.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPROTATOR."I Su,—I sometimes see appeals to your readers in the Spectator, and I am venturing to tell you about a work I have started in Oxford in the hope that if you think it a good work you would ask your readers to help me. The need for sandbags is, I think, known to every one by now ; there is another need perhaps not quite so obvious. It seems to me that so very little opportunity is given to working women and girls to give their help to their country. With these two ideas in mind we have started, in the parish of St. Ebbe's, Oxford, what might be called a small voluntary sandbag factory. The scheme was instantly successful. The girls' club—all quite poor girls earning their living—gave the first pound out of the money usually spent on their summer outing; the rector, Dr. Stansfeld, had church collections; and many workers constantly bring halfpennies and pennies, and even more. We meet three times a week, and the workers take bags home to make between whites. But the energy and enthusiasm of the women soon outstripped their means, and I appealed for help outside. Oxford people have been most kind. The output of bags has increased rapidly with the increase of funds-65 bags the first week, 120 the second, 213 the third, 280 the fourth. But in order to carry on and increase the work I must have still more money—more than the generosity of Oxford alone can supply. We work under Miss Tyler's directions, and our bags go straight to her each week through Queen Mary's Needlework Guild. And all branches of the pariah are drawn in to help, for Scouts and boys of the Sunday-school carry the bundles of finished bags in proces- sion down High Street to the Guild on Saturday mornings.—
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