BLINDED SOLDIERS' CHILDREN. (To THE ED/TOR OF ran SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—I want to carry one step farther the endeavour which during nearly three years past has been made to brighten and render serial the lives of the soldiers and sailers who have been blinded in the war. The success of the work at St. Dunstates has exceeded soy most sanguine hopes, and the systetn of after-care which has been organized is carrying on that work with complete satisfaction. Now 1 feel that everything possible should lie done to encourage the bachelor blinded soldiers to marry and surround themselves with children, and also to help those already married with the new babies who may ensue to them. I am thinking not only of the joy (him to be brought into their lives, but of the practical help eta wife and children ton nom who is sightless. And the Empire will want the sons and daughters of men like these.
The Government make a weekly allowance for children born
before or within nine months of the soldier's discharge; but there is, of course, no allowance for the children born later or for these of the men who marry after leaving the Army because of their disablement. There in, it seems to me, something infinitely pathetic about the idea of these children whom their fathers will never see. They will be known only by the sound of their voices end by their characters as they develop. Their little faces will become familiar by the touch of the hand that caresses them. And they will grow up to responsibilities that other children do not know. It must often full to the children of the blind man to he the special compnnion of their father, to wait en him, to guide him, to become, in a sense, the guardians of their parent. I feel certain that those whose joy it is to leek on the faces of their ebildien, to watch their smiles and their play, to see them grow up, will be eager to help the men front St. Dunstan's to care for the little ones, known to them eo strangely, like the children we me in our dreams.
The heroism of the blinded soldier is not a matter of the battle-
Feld alone, for to face life joyously and usefully in a world that is dark requires an enduring courage. The genernen help that has some to me for these men semi to be a message from the public that they want them to lire the happiest lives possible; we do not want the men who have given their sight for us to he hampered by diffienIties that forethought ease remove from their way. To give blind moldiere the assurance that the children who come to brighten their lives shall be provided for till they are able to make their own way in the world in the object I have at heart. It is wonderful fur the blinded soldier to have the love and constant care of a wife. And in 'a world of darkness what visions of light are called into existence by the laughter of children, the sound of their feet, the touch at their hands!
It is my hope to be able to raise a Fend to provide an allowance of 5e. per week until the age of sixteen for each of these children who are not cared for by the Stale. The total required will cer- tainly amount to—and may even exceed-1.'250,000. A sum so large can only be raised by an effort worthy of this cause, which will,
am sure, appeal to every one. May I beg the hospitality of your enlumns to ask for the support of your readers both for subscrip- t:ens and for help in collecting this Fund ? The object in one winch will, I an sure, appeal above all to the women of this country. All requests for information and all donations should be pent to- me at 224 Great Portland Street, London, W. 1, and marked " Blinded Soldicen' Children Fund."—I am, Sir, ARTHUR PEARSON.
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