23 OCTOBER 1920, Page 14

BLINDED SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' HOSTEL. [To THE EDITOR or THE

" SPECTATOR."] Ste,—I have just received the gratifying intimation that the ex-Servicemen of Yeadon, near Leeds, have decided to devote the bonus of 5s. a head granted to them by the United Services Fund to the benefit of their blinded comrades of St. Dunstan's. I gather that a sum equal to hs. a head for every ex-Service- man in every borough has been sent to the Chairman of each Borough Council, and that all over the country meetings are now being held to decide the beet manner in which to expend the fund thus created. The ex-Servicemen of Tendon, in voting that the 1216 allocated to them should be sent to St. Dunstan's, have set an example which I trust may be followed in many other localities.

The training and re-education of soldiers who paid in the service of their country the terrible price of loss of sight still proceed on a large scale. In addition to the men who came to us straight from hospital, twenty-three thousand men were discharged from the Army on account of damaged eight and from this large number men whose vision has entirely failed them continue to reach St. Dunstan's in a steady stream, and will undoubtedly continue to do so for a long while to come. The results of training at St. Dunstan's are supremely success- ful; men who were apparently industrially incapacitated are earning good livings in a great variety of trades and occupa- tions. May I ask that you will be so good as to find space for this letter, for I am sure that its publication will decide many other groups of ex-Servicemen to do as their comrades of Yeadon have done, and enable my colleagues and myself to continue to carry out adequately the obligations which we have ]aid upon ourselves in regard to the restoration to normal life of men who have suffered for us the terrible deprivation of

loss of sight?—I am, Sir, Ac., ARTHUR PEARSON, Chairman, Blinded Soldier.' and Sailora' Care Committee. St. Dunstan's, Hanover Gate, Regent's Park, N.W. I.