21 JUNE 1935, Page 19

RECOMMENDATION LETTERS

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Illness has prevented me from writing earlier in strong support of your correspondent, Mr. F. W. Tanner, of May 17th. He emphasizes the enormous waste of money spent in postage and stationery by people too poor to obtain surgical appliances for themselves, because the present system of working the Xtoyal Surgical Aid Society compels those sufferers either to call, personally on subscribers, at the expense of leather and 'bus fares, or else to send scores of letters by post. I would like to call attention to two other evils of the system, which make it both heart-breaking and degrading. refer first to delay and to the pain and suffering involved, and secondly to enforced begging. As an example of this I quote the case of a retired nurse aged sixty-six, who came to this office in a dangerous physical state, owing to the urgent need of a surgical belt. The doctor's certificate was three weeks old, but she had not succeeded in getting even one of the necessary eight Letters in spite of painful efforts. 'Buses caused dangerous jolting, walking far was impossible, and on her sole income of 20s. per week it was a cruel strain to use money for stamps. Besides this she was sensitive and inde- pendent and she hated to be obliged to tell a pitiful tale, in order to get the sympathy of subscribers, in competition with other applicants.

The methods of the Royal Surgical Aid Society could be modernized, and all these evils could be avoided, if sub- scribers to it would convince the London Headquarters that they do not wish to retain a system of patronage, and that their subscriptions would continue without reduction if Social Service Centre, Royal York Buildings, Brighton.