SANDBAGS: AN APPEAL FROM OXFORD. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR."] have read with considerable interest, not unmixed with amusement and even pity, the letter in your issue of August 21st on the above subject. I would point out that the combined production of sandbags in Dundee and Calcutta at the present moment is counted not hi hundreds or in thousands, but in scores of millions, A girl machinist of fair ability can easily turn out two thousand in ten working hours. The maximum Oxford production, amounting to two hundred and eighty bags per week of the value, say, of five pounds, not only exhausted the productive power but the financial ability of that seat of learning, so that the efforts of the girls' club, assisted as they are by the Scouts and other boys, cannot have any appreciable bearing on the progress of the war, or the comfort and safety of the troops. Without in the slightest degree depreciating the patriotism and Jorge-heartedness which inspire your correspondent, I would suggest that energies, however good, put into this channel are completely misdirected, and would be far better employed in the pro- duction of personal comforts for our soldiers—such as socks,
underwear, &c,—I am, Sir, &o., DUNDEE.
[All the same, we do not think the sandbag workers should be discouraged by this letter or by the official declaration that no more privately made bags are now needed. A good store of bags kept in every village and town in the country may some day prove very useful. In spite of the official communi- cation, we should not be in the least surprised to hear next December of a sandbag famine at the front. In that case the home reserve will be very useful. Again, there is the possi- bility, though not the likelihood, of invasion. Should that happen, bags on the spot might be worth their weight in gold. Therefore, unless they have some more immediate need for their needles, we hope the stitchers of bags will proceed un- deterred by "Dundee's" letter or by the official "Excellent but ineffective creatures, don't you see you're not wanted P "- En. Spectator.]
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