The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (11 page)
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Authors: Gavin Fuller
SIR â Without entering into the controversy as to whether football should cease or not, may I point out that there is an honourable alternative for the man who ought to serve his country and yet must play and talk football â namely, to join the 2nd Sportsman's Battalion Royal Fusiliers, the battalion which is now recruiting at this hotel.
The corps already contains well-known footballers, and friends joining at the same time, who have interests in common, can be kept together, live in the same hut, and so on. They need not altogether sacrifice their love of sport
while training for the great international now being played in northern France.
Provided the applicant is a gentleman and thoroughly fit, expense need not stand in his way, for he is not asked to pay for anything. The age limit, specially extended in this case by the War Office to 45, will attract many who are willing to serve, but unable to enter any other corps.
The battalion is an infantry one, and, of course, part of the Regular Army.
I am, yours faithfully,
E. Cunliffe Owen, Chief Recruiting Officer
Hotel Cecil, Strand, W.C.
2 December 1914
Presents for the Children
SIR â Will you be good enough to allow us to make an appeal to the readers of your paper for dolls, toys, books and games for the children of our sailors and soldiers? Whatever presents are received will be divided equally between the children of the two services.
Parcels or gifts of money for this object will be gratefully acknowledged, and should be sent on or before 19 December to Mrs Tillyer Tatham, Kendall Hall, Elstree, Herts, or Miss Meadows Taylor, Colney Park, St Albans.
Parcels, if sent by rail, to Mrs Tillyer Tatham, Radlett Station, Midland Railway.
Will anyone help us? He who gives quickly gives twice.
Yours truly,
Alice Cornelia Tatham
Kendall Hall, Elstree
3 December 1914
20,000 More Expected Urgent Need of Help
SIR â We have been advised by the Government to expect the arrival in the course of the next two months of some 2,000 Belgian refugees in each week from Holland, until, perhaps, as many as 20,000 have arrived.
We have at present available accommodation for about 10,000 in family groups, and obviously we shall require in a
few weeks many more offers of hospitality. Counties on the east coast, and to a large extent on the south and west coasts, having been declared prohibited areas, many offers have had to be cancelled. Our main necessities now are fourfold.
1. Accommodation for families of three or more.
2. Furnished houses or flats, more particularly in London or its immediate neighbourhood, are urgently required at once. There is an increasing number of refugees who hitherto have been able to pay their way, and could still do so if suitable houses or rooms can be offered to them without charge.
3. We have very few offers to take single refugee men. Yet we have on our hands a large number of professional men, doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, businessmen, &c., for whom we are doing our best to provide accommodation.
4. Money contributions will be gratefully received. Our total subscriptions up to date amount to £42,600. We have spent roughly about half this amount. Through our organisation we have provided for some 60,000 refugees. The business requires a large staff, and though we have many excellent volunteers who have given us their whole time for three months, many paid members are essential for the transport, interpreting, registration, escort, and clerical work. The charges for providing hospital treatment are always increasing.
The Government provides accommodation, necessarily rough, for reception on arrival. Yet there are a number of persons who, because of health or status, cannot be sent to
the depots. We have to find temporary accommodation for them in our own hostels or in hotels.
And we are charged with the responsibility for allocating all refugees to offered hospitality.
The stress of the war is certain to continue at best for some months, and we are, therefore, bound to husband our slender resources for the purposes of essential organisation. We find ourselves obliged, therefore, to ask for further financial support from our countrymen, who are free from the terrors and ruin which accompany German invasion for the sake of our Belgian friends who have had to fly from their devastated country. The nation has undertaken to give them hospitality, and it should be not only adequate but generous, sympathetic and ample.
The title of our committee is âThe War Refugees Committee', and cheques intended for our work should be made payable to Lord Gladstone, the treasurer, at General Buildings, Aldwych. Offers of hospitality should be made to the secretary.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
Hugh Cecil
War Refugees Committee, General Buildings, Aldwych,
London W.C.
15 December 1914
SIR â The citizens of Shrewsbury are to be insulted next Thursday, 17 December, by invitations to a concert given by the interned German prisoners of war to provide themselves with âcomforts'. Can nothing be done to stop this revolting exhibition?
Surely Lord Kitchener cannot approve of such entertainments or of this method of trading with the enemy?
Is Belgium already forgotten, and the bestial brutality of her oppressors so lightly forgiven?
Yours, &c.,
Civis Britt
24 December 1914
Princess Mary's Fund
SIR â The object of the fund raised under the auspices of the Princess Mary was to forward a Christmas present to all the sailors serving in the Grand Fleet, and to all the troops of the
Expeditionary Force. These presents have been packed and despatched, and, it is hoped, distributed to the sailors and soldiers on Christmas Day.
They consist of an embossed brass box, pipe, tobacco, cigarettes, photograph and Christmas card. A brass box filled with chocolate has also been despatched to the nurses at the front.
The committee intended to include a tinder lighter in the distribution, but owing to unforeseen circumstances it was found impossible to obtain them in time, or in sufficient quantity, to despatch them for Christmas Day. It is hoped, however, in the New Year to make a further distribution, so that each sailor of the Grand Fleet and soldier of the Expeditionary Force may receive a tinder lighter or some other equivalent present.
The response to her Royal Highness's appeal has been so generous that the committee are enabled to place additional orders for a gift which will include a brass box, and as these are delivered they will be despatched to all his Majesty's sailors and soldiers serving abroad other than those mentioned above.
A further order has been given to provide a similar brass box as a gift from the Princess Mary's Christmas Fund to all his Majesty's troops serving the colours in the United Kingdom, and from information given to the committee they confidently hope that the above presents will be despatched during the next three months.
The Admiralty and the War Office have kindly undertaken to distribute the respective presents. Presents will be given to the wounded, to the widows or mothers of those who have fallen, and to prisoners of war on their return.
The committee have been compelled strictly to limit the distribution of the presents to those who are serving, of who have served, previous to and including Christmas Day.
Your obedient servant,
Devonshire
Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly, W.
From the King's Farm
SIR â I think it may interest many of your readers to learn that I, on behalf of a few London butchers and their friends, have this morning sent, with the approval of Lord Kitchener, two carcases of beef, weighing about 2,300 lb, for the Christmas dinner of those brave wounded soldiers in the base hospital at Boulogne who are able to partake of the true roast beef of Old England.
Both animals were bred and fed by His Majesty King George on his royal farms at Windsor, and were prizewinners at the recent Smithfield Club Show.
We believe it will gladden the heart of many an heroic sufferer to know he was thought of at home.
I am, Sir, yours obediently,
Wm. Haydon, L.C.C., Brixton Division
County Hall, Spring Gardens, London S.W.