Whatever the failings of the V.A.D.'s, who will refuse to
-say that with all their faults we would not have them other than they are ? They seem born for whatever is arduous ; diffi- culties vanish at -their touch, and their work is by its nature the noblest that any human being can undertake. At midnight in mid. December in a tempest of snow they will push the sleeping-huts on their turntables, away from the blizzard. When the men orderlies give out, it is they who carry coals or heavy patients and perform every sort of impossible emergency work. Scrubbing and washing up plates .and cups and knives and forks innumerable, waiting at other people's meals and waiting for their own, appear to come natural to girls who once were waited on hand and foot. To cut up half a sheep or a side of bacon is a source of pride for young women who before the war turned their heads away in disgust from
butchers' shops ! We speak of those who have crossed the Rubicon. Another twenty thousand must go and do likewise.
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