CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19502, 26 December 1928, Page 11

CORRESPONDENCE.

Correspondent* who do not comply with onr rules aet out in the lait column of our leader page will excuse us from noticing their letter*. A NATIONAL MEMORIAL TO JOSEPHINE BUTLER. to THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—All great nations honour their great citizens. This year thero is a special opportunity open to us to pay our homage to one of tbo very nobis figures that were tho glory of the Victorian age—Josephine Butler, that lovely, cultured, and talented Englishwoman, who abandoned the leisure; and ease of a happy and prosperous married life to give' hcrsolf to tho most heart-breaking crusade that ever enlisted gallant warrior. ■ There was no advantage to be reaped. There was no glory to be won. She fought for the hopeless, tho helpless, the homeless, the outcasts, the despised. She broke ground hitherto shunned and banned, and she won the meed of tho reformer—obloquy. She was bespattered with abuse. She says of herself that her soul '"went down into hell and dwelt thero." But her bravo heart never quailed, and she triumphed. Josephino Butler's inspiration was righteousness. She fought and suffered that justice might be done even to tho least and the worst; She fought and suffered, that. "human society shall have within it no human dregs." She fought a lid suffered that it should be recognised "tile essence of right and wrong is in no way dependent on sex." -And she triumphed. She swept from the law of our land the blots that defamed it, and lit a great light which is now beginning to shine through* all lands. Fifty-six Government associated iu the League of Nations have, this year, put their seals to a document which is a lasting monument to the faith and the courage and the love of humanity which inspired her gallant career. Though this is the year of lier centenary, her outlook is even now ahead of our time. Public opinion has still to be educated to the point that there can be but one moral standard for men and women, and that this standard must be voluntarily kept for the moral ■is well as the physical well-being of the community. Our hospitals, our asylums, oui—institutions for the blind and maimed show the tragic effects of tfie wrong-doing which is so damaging to our national ljfe. Courage and vigilance are as needed to-day as in her time for work that is still shunned and banned. The Association for Moral and Social Hygiene founded by Josephino Butler in 1870 docs research work in the way of collecting and publishing statistic* and watching legislation with regard to moral questions all over the world, and the Josephine Butler Memorial House trains university women on Josephino Butter's lines. . May wo beg all those who wish to honour Josephine Butler's memory to help us place her work on a sure foundation? We propose to commemorate her centenary—in gratitude that her great record is ours—by raising £40,000 as a national memorial to endow the two Societies that are carrying on her. great work. Will you help us? —Yours, etc., * ASTOR (President) RAVENSDALE (Chairman) SUTHERLAND ABERDEEN and TEMAIR JSHBEL ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR CLARENDON HALIFAX MARY FITZALAX W. MANCHESTER GEORGE BISHOP OF EDINBURGH J. E. K. STUDD, Lord Mayor of London J\ W. LIGHTLEY . CHARLES BROWN (Baptist Uniftp) ALFRED E. GARVIE J D. JONES (Congregational Union) F. W. NORWOOD (Congregational Union) ARTHUR S. PEAKE (National Free Church Council) THOS. R. FERENS KATHARINE ATHOLL " LYTTON A. F. LONDON ALBERT LIVERPOOL W. JOYNSON HICKS. ERNEST LAMB J. H. HERTZ (Chief Rabbi) ARCHIBALD FLEMING _ ROBERT F. HORTON •I. SCOTT LIDGETT F.B.MEYER - FRANCIS WRJGLEY . BERTRAM SMITH. RHONDDA. •London, November loth. [ln an accompanying letter to the Editor the Baroness Bavensdale points out that the signatories include "the heads of Churches of every denomination—Lady Fitzalan representing the Roman ■ Catholics." —Ed., The Pbes3.]