THE TRIUMPH OF RED CROSS ORGANIZATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—There appears to be a feeling of discouragement among members of the County and Divisional Branches of the British Red Cross Society because the War Office is not able to use all their offers of assistance. They wonder whether their years of training, &c., may not have been in vain. On the contrary, might it not rather be said that this very superabundance of
offers of help is the triumph of their work ? For the last four or five years members of Divisional Branches have been systematically conducting a Red Cross propaganda, and the aim of Committees has been that no one in the districts of their branches should fail to hear of the work of the Red Cross or be deprived of an opportunity of offering help. They have made what has been almost a house-to-house visitation through our towns and villages asking every one, gentle and simple, to help with funds or personal service, or to lend their household goods in case of emergency. The result of this quiet "spade- work " has been that the War Office has not had to ask for unwilling assistance, but has received so many and such generous offers of help that it will take some weeks to tabulate the offers and to arrange the best way in which they can be used. The necessary machinery is there in the County Territorial Associations, and the War Office itself is developing a comprehensive scheme so that nothing should be employed wastefully. This, and not the acceptance of offers of individual service, is the real triumph of the work of the local Committees and of the Voluntary Aid Detachments of the British Red Cross Society.—I am, Sir, &o.,
A COUNTRY VICE-PRESIDENT.
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