SIR,—Dr. Somerville Hastings's letter of March 14th causes me at
last to write. Facit indignatio litteras. My daughter was studying at the Lausanne University when war broke out. She went immediately to an officially recognised nurses' training school at Geneva for six months, with practical training in hospitals during the ,morning, lectures and study in the afternoon. Passing out, she spent two and half years in large hospitals at Geneva and Neuchatel, in the operating theatre, surgical, medical and maternity wards. One month's refresher course at the nurses' school preceded a successful examination and the granting of her diploma, recognised by all hospital authorities in Switzerland. Armigtice found her acting as ward sister. Full of enthusiasm, she rushed home. She applied as a British subject for some recognition of her previous training; to be allowed to serve for, say, one year in a London hospital to learn English medical terms and methods, and then sit for the S.R.N. examination. The papers she had seen were of the same fatandard as the ones she had already passed. The answer was "No "; she must serve again three years. She applied to the Calonial Office for work anywhere; answer "No." Speaking French fluently, fair German and "kitchen Swahili," she applied to the Queen Alexandra Nursing Service for work in any Occupied territory, anywhere. Answer
"No." And so on. After three 'maths of effont, she returned to work for the Swiss Red Cross as ward sister to English sick children! She has now been offered a post at £200 a year, as typist, etc., by a doctor in the colony where she was born. I rejoice she refuses to descend the easy slope of Avernus. At her request. I use a nom de plume.—Yours
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