CUPID'S BUREAU

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3030, 17 March 1917, Page 5

CUPID'S BUREAU

A DEPARTMENT OK THE BRITISH WAR OFFICE. There is a. "Cupid's Inquiry Bureau" at the War Office. Oupi3 has his official headquarters there, but so numerous are the inquiries of lovesick maidens that "Cupid's Agencies" havo lieon opened at every Army Record Office (writes the London correspondent of the "Evening News" on January 12). It appears that soldiers, as well as sailors, are apt to have a girl in every "port." and when their battalion is moved away they promise to but do not do so. The girls send off letters and parcels to the only address they have, but neither are acknowledged nor returned. The faithless lovers keep the parcels. It is a long time before the forlorn maidens think of the War Office, and then they do not .write in any spirit of 'bitterness. They do not denounce their sweethearts to their superiors; they simply inquire where they are. There is a great deal of patlins in these inquiries, and the w ar Office treats them very kindly. They are sent on to the Record Office of the man's regiment, and the desired information is given if it is available. About thirty-five girls per week write to Hip Salvation Armv to help them to find their lovers. The army, however. has a little sympathy with the soldier, who is sometimes worried by casual acquaintances. In one case an older woman followed a man from place to place, and though lie tried hard ho could not get reported "missing." The view is held that girls who make these casual friends must expect to be treated casually. In the case of an "official" fiancee, the army sets the machinery going with which it helps relatives of missing soldiers.

The casual sweetheart is given the address of the local "Cnnid's Bureau" —the faithle« lover's Record Office. One trirl is looking for two soldiers! An Irish girl pathetically asks that when found the authorities will ask her Tommy to write to her. A .tirl in Australia 'asks only if her sweetheart is well. A girl who has not heard "anythink of him for. about three months" says that it makes her "ready to do almost anythink to get to know anythink about him."