. THE DISABLED SOLDIER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTAT011.1 Ste,—Roferring to your correspondence on this subject and the sug- gestion that there should be a " Soldiers' and Sailors' Friend " in every parish, may I suggest that the " Friend " should keep a parochial record such as is already being compiled in about half the parishes In this county ? Therein should be recorded the name of every man who has joined the Army or Navy—his regiment, regimental number, rank, previous employment, domestic position, date of joining, where serving, number of his family and what allowance is paid them. Casualties should be entered and a Roll of Honour kept. Thus at the end of the war every man will be accounted for, and the record will be a splendid foundation for the work of the War Pensions Committee.. It will also become such a valuable historical document that copies should be kept in the parish and county archives for future reference. Perhaps the Statutory Committee of the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation or the Incorporated Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society would prepare a common form for this purpose. There should be a column for recording any special honour that may be bestowed on the man, and I think the names of the military nurses, and such of the V.A.D. nurses who have given their whole time to the service or who have served abroad, should be included. Under Section 4 of the Naval and Military War Pensions Act the local Committee must make provision for the care of disabled officers and mon, after they have left the Service, including provision for their health, training, and employment; and Section 2, Subsection 7, provides that any sub-committee set up for this purpose must include representatives of employers and labour. Employers and employed will thus be closely connected with this most important work, and I think we should endeavour, as far as possible, to get certain employmenti reserved for disabled soldiers—such as massage for blind men, sedentary
work for lame men; and so on. There are some jobs that a one-armed man can do nearly as well as one able-bodied ; let them also be reserved es fax as possible. It can be done provided we have the goodwill of employers and those workmen who now fill such positions. This goodwill we shall have, but we must get everybody interested in our work, and whenever an able-bodied man resigns his post to make room for a disabled soldier care must be taken that he does not suffer in conse- quence. We shall, however, need careful organization, the goodwill "of all classes, and sustained patriotism.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ROBERT STEPHENSON, Chairman of the Cambridgeshire War Pensions Committee.
Burwell, near Cambridge.
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