The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (32 page)
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Authors: Gavin Fuller
Newton House, Paternoster Square, E.C.
SIR â Your Civil Service correspondent's interesting communication requires one addition, or, perhaps, correction. He says that no serious attempt has been made to bring in for war service the huge mass of the educated middle-class women of England.
He should have added that the War Office, through the Head Mistresses' Association, are offering women of this type holding the equivalent of honours degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, and of the highest intelligence, 25s weekly for a forty-eight-hour week, with an obligation to work unlimited overtime at 9d an hour. It may be possible to justify the wage on the ground that people anxious to help are willing to accept it. It is not possible to justify the length of hours per week wherein labour is required.
My company, with a wide and long experience of women clerks and typists, are satisfied that only a woman of exceptional physique, of whom, alas, there are but few, can work continuously at office duties for more than thirty-nine hours a week. Any attempt to extend this working time, if it lasts for more than a week or two, leads to tired and inefficient work, and a heavy sick list.
If women are to take the place of first- and second-division clerks they should be paid not less than half of the salary of
the men they are replacing, and the hours should be carefully adjusted.
Yours,
Secretary
SIR â I have read with considerable interest the letter in the issue of the 29th signed âMiddle Class', and I think my own experience will show how very discouraging the authorities can be, however anxious one may be to render some little assistance. Being upwards of fifty years of age I many months since offered my services to the Anti-Aircraft Corps, and was told that I should be called upon as further stations were opened. From time to time I have called and have written, with no result, but a few weeks since, I received a summons to report myself, when my services were not only accepted, but I was told the station I should be sent to as soon as it was ready.
On this I resigned from the Special Constabulary, giving my reason that I had joined the Anti-Aircraft Corps. Yesterday I received a notification from the corps that as the defences of London had been taken over by the military authorities, my services would not now be required. This I contend is hardly what one would call business.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A.E. White
Hampton Wick
7 January 1916
SIR â Having read with much appreciative interest the letter signed âMiddle Class', I would like to place before your readers my experiences as an engineer, having a matured knowledge of most of the natural sciences, a practical experience of over thirty years in engineering work generally, and a speaking acquaintance with at least six different languages, and, perhaps what is most to the purpose, a knowledge of organisation, having at one time occupied a high position in the Government service as inspector of mines and explosives. Since the war started I have made several applications for work, as follows:
I applied through the Labour Bureau and was directed to the Board of Trade department connected with engineers at Queen Anne's Gate, who referred me to the chief inspector, Woolwich Arsenal. Having filled in two forms, in duplicate, giving a detailed account of my education and experience throughout my life, I waited patiently and am still waiting. I also was recommended by a high official at Scotland Yard to apply to the Censor's Department for work, as I had a good
knowledge of German, French, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Russian and Turkish. After waiting several months and also filling in three forms, and giving two first-class references, I was finally informed that my services would not be required. I then made an application to the Committee for the Relief of Professional Classes in Wartime, not for charity, but for work, and all the satisfaction I got was to be referred to one of the most prominent institutions of engineers, of which I was not only a late member of council, but practically a foundation member!
On the other side of the picture I have given all my time and energy, free of pay, to Government service, 1) as a special constable, having the privilege of paying £5 for my uniform; 2) in assisting the Criminal Investigation Department in, of course, an amateur capacity, in trapping spies and undesirables generally, and succeeded, so I was informed, in doing very efficient work for the department. I also offered my services, free of all charge, expenses only to be paid, to the Red Cross and St John Ambulance, but, not having sufficient money to pay the expenses of living, &c., I was obliged to refuse all offers. Finally, I enlisted in the Sportsman's Battalion, age thirty-nine and âa bit', no questions being asked as to the amount of âthe bit', which should have been twenty years more! Anyway, now I have the satisfaction of being able to comply with His Majesty's request to wear the armlet, when it is finally delivered to me.
This is the story which I hear repeated on all sides by brother engineers of the greatest ability and experience. Surely nothing but sheer want of proper organisation in the
Government departments, save always the Admiralty, which has never been âtoo late', could warrant such âblinking incapacity', as Tommy would call it.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
Special Constable
1 January 1916
SIR â At the turn of the year, the second December that has witnessed the continuation of the lurid drama enacted by the international players on the chessboard of the world's politics, permit me to offer you the greetings of the new year, with the fervent prayer that it may prove to you and us all a far happier one than that of 1915.
This is no conventional wish: there is something specially opportune in rendering to you these good wishes, shared, I am convinced, by your large circle of readers; for, frightful as have been in more ways than one the attendant miseries of the holocaust âwar', your journal has ever been prompt to the fore in the humane effort to alleviate the brutal effects of this world struggle, to soften the wounds that have been so mercilessly inflicted in this premeditated attempt to set back by several degrees the hands of the dial and to arrest that phase of the world's progress termed âcivilisation'.
In other words, by the splendid manner in which you have intuitively grasped and strikingly expressed the needs of the hour, by your timely and eloquent advocacy on behalf of the wretched victims of the various forms of suffering entailed by warfare's insane methods, by the princely and magnanimous response you have always been able to evoke in aid of suffering humanity in this country and in the countries of our Allies, you have earned a debt of gratitude from those who witness in silence, as well as from those who are directly benefited by the working of the powerful means at your command for influencing public opinion â a debt that can never be expressed in words, and one that is bound to grow with the months of conflict that are still before us.
I am sure you will agree with me that there can be no more solemn aspiration at the present hour than the prayer that the day may not be far distant when the maxim âPeace on earth, goodwill towards men' may prove not merely a splendid text for this time of the year, but a living reality for all times and all seasons.
Yours obediently,
Hermann Gollancz
3 January 1916
SIR â Yesterday most of the daily and evening newspapers published a request to all those men who had been attested under Lord Derby's scheme to wear the armlet, and thus show a proof to one's fellow countrymen of one's response to the call. I am one of those who are entitled to wear this much-talked-of armlet, but I am unable to show this proof of my response to the call for the simple reason that I cannot get possession of one, and write, in view of the King's request, in the hope that my grievance, which is no doubt borne by countless others, may soon be rectified.
To put my case briefly, I was medically examined, approved and attested at Wimbledon as far back as 20 November. The following week I made application for an armlet, and was told that they had not arrived. The following week I was told a similar tale, and that they would be posted to those entitled to them by a certain day. Needless to say, the day arrived without the armlet. My next application was a few days before Christmas, when I was informed that they would only be issued to those up to the age of twenty-six until after Christmas.
When I saw the King's request yesterday I thought surely I should get one at last, and made a special journey for the purpose last night. This time I was told they were only issuing them to married men up to the age of twenty-eight, and that I should most likely be able to have one next week. Surely
this is an unusual procedure, and cannot be said to be due to the lack in the number of armlets, and it would not be out of place, therefore, to ask those who are responsible for some explanation on the matter with a view to those like myself being able to carry out the wishes of our King.
Yours truly,
A Would-be Armleteer
Wimbledon Park, S.W.