From this clearing house in England’s historic
old palace, built so long ago by Bluff King Hal, these
offerings of the world are sent wherever there is
need, to Servia, to Egypt, to South and East Africa,
to the Belgians. The work was instituted by the
Queen the moment war broke out, and three things are
being very carefully insured: That a real want
exists, that the clothing reaches its proper destination,
and that there shall be no overlapping.
The result has been most gratifying to the Queen,
but it was difficult to get so huge a business—for,
as I have already said, it is a business now—under
way at the beginning. Demand was insistent.
There was no time to organise a system in advance.
It had to be worked out in actual practice.
One of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting wrote in
February, apropos of the human element in the work:
“There was a great deal of human element in
the start with its various mistakes. The Queen
wished, on the breaking out of war, to start the Guild
in such a way as to prevent the waste and overlapping
which occurred in the Boer War.... The fact that
the ladies connected with the work have toiled daily
and unceasingly for seven months is the most wonderful
part of it all.”
Before Christmas nine hundred and seventy thousand
belts and socks were collected and sent as a special
gift to the soldiers at the front, from the Queen
and the women of the empire. That in itself is
an amazing record of efficiency.
It is rather comforting to know that there were mistakes
in the beginning. It is so human. It is
comforting to think of this exceedingly human Queen
being a party to them, and being divided between annoyance
and mirth as they developed. It is very comforting
also to think that, in the end, they were rectified.
We had a similar situation during our Civil War.
There were mistakes then also, and they too were rectified.
What the heroic women of the North and South did during
that great conflict the women of Great Britain are
doing to-day. They are showing the same high and
courageous spirit, the same subordination of their
personal griefs to the national cause, the same cheerful
relinquishment of luxuries. It is a United Britain
that confronts the enemy in France. It is a united
womanhood, united in spirit, in labour, in faith and
high moral courage, that looks east across the Channel
to that land beyond the horizon, “somewhere
in France,” where the Empire is fighting for
life.
A united womanhood, and at its head a steadfast and
courageous Queen and mother, Mary of England.
THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS
On the third of August, 1914, the German Army crossed
the frontier into Belgium. And on the following
day, the fourth, King Albert made his now famous speech
to the joint meeting of the Belgian Chamber and Senate.
Come what might, the Belgian people would maintain
the freedom that was their birthright.
