RAILWAY DISCOMFORT
SIR,—At a recent meeting of the Borough Council on which I serve, we interviewed candidates for the position of staff-nurse in our Maternity Home. During the course of the interviews the fact emerged that one of the candidates had travelled all night from West Hartlepool, after a hard day's work on duty in hospital, and been compelled to stand all night throughout the whole journey in the corridor of the train. Meanwhile the majority of the first-class compartments were half empty. This feature of travelling in war- time which gravely affects both soldiers and war-workers of every type is surely something the railway companies can instruct their officials to remedy. If they cannot, for reasons of revenue, take the heroic step of the L.P.T.B. and abolish the distinction between classes, at least on crowded trains doing a night-journey, they might allow the occupation of empty first-class seats by passengers. The nurse to whom I referred was not unnaturally both distressed and fatigued by what was practically a thirty-six-hour shift without rest. I might add that we have engaged her, so she will have the same journey facing her, with the accompanying unpleasant experiences, wheh she takes up her duties with us in a week's time.—Yours, &c., F. LASKI.
5 Addison Bridge Place, London, W. 14.
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