THE RED CROSS SOCIETY AND VOLUNTARY AID
[TO THE EDITOR 07 TEE " SPECTATOR.."1
Sia,—I am venturing to write to you upon an aspect of the voluntary aid system now being organised by the Red Cross Society which does not seem to have received sufficient con- sideration. I refer to the large financial outlay required for the purpose of educating candidates for the detachments in the principles of first-aid and nursing, -under the auspices of the St. John's Ambulance Association. When the branch of the Red Cross Society in Cambridgeshire, of which I have been acting as honorary secretary and county director, was started in 1907, members were asked to join upon the under- standing that it was to be of a purely latent character. Last year, under the War Office scheme, the county branches were asked to join in the national movement of voluntary aid and active co-operation with the Territorial Associations. In this county we were able, through the generosity of the County Council and the gratuitous help of the medical profession, to start a large number of free lectures, which met with con- siderable success and popularity. The numbers, however, who pass in these village centres are often not sufficient to form at once even a half-detachment, and the educationary work must go on continually to bring in fresh candidates for
enrolment. The Cambridgeshire and Hunts Branch of the British Medical Association have now intimated, and I consider rightly so, that members of the branch are only prepared to deliver courses of lectures to the voluntary aid detachments under the conditions now existing in connexion with similar courses, under the auspices of the St. John's Ambulance Association, at a fee of five guineas for the authorised course of five lectures. As these courses are necessary in each centre—viz., first-aid separately for men and women, and nursing for women—we must face a charge of 215 15s. in each place, which is quite independent of the other charges paid for by the County Council, which are very considerable,—namely, for rooms, firing, models, diagrams, bandages, and examination fees. In this respect we are, however, better situated than other counties who receive no help from their County Councils, and whose lectures are not treated as night-schools. We have now to face two alternatives : either to make all candi- dates pay their share of the lectures, when we should at once find a large falling off in numbers, or else to organise an elaborate system all over the county to induce people to join as paying members and associates, such funds when collected being used to finance the lectures and to provide the material required for the voluntary aid detachments when formed. It seems to me that this procedure will inevitably result in the reduction of the charitable contributions of the county, which are most urgently required for local objects, such as our hospital and district nursing associations. I cannot but feel that if this question is properly ventilated and placed before the authorities some financial assistance will be forthcoming to help the inauguration of a most valuable national service which is capable of much develop- ment. The feeling here, however, is strong that a financial burden of this character should not be placed upon the county without the effect being considered upon other local [In some way or other the medical men should be paid reasonable fees for lecturing and teaching. Doctors at present do far too much unpaid work. To ask a profession, which in the country is already terribly underpaid, to take up more gratuitous burdens would be most unjust.—En. Spectator.]
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