SHEPHERDING THE SOLDIER

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 67, 17 September 1917, Page 10

SHEPHERDING THE SOLDIER

A KHAKI-CLAD CORPS.

An organisation triumph of the war is the way in which soldiers arriving in London for their ten days' leave are' now scared for, shepherded, made happy, and put in'the right train for.;homo (says the ' Daily Mail). One remembers the contusion'in earlier days—provincial men fresh 'from the front—finding'their way about London as best they could, and* in a sad number of cases picked up by harpies arid adventurers. It is very different now, as may be seen on Victoria Station on any afternoon. The soldier, who has acquired the habit of discipline, likes to be told what he is" to do, and there is an'increasing number of friendly people ready to help him. The scene at the station is a stirring one. ■' Crowds of women crane their necks outside the barriers, and groups of Volunteers in dovegrey and young women in 'khaki are within. . •■'. ■ . '.

The first &ash of the incoming iaen. is to the little cabins where French.: money is changed—Bid for a franc, 14s 8d for 20, 18s 4d for 25, £3 13s 4d for 100. Over £8000 has.been"changed in a day. Then tea and sandwiches and cake at the free buffets, and then a bustling rush to the barrier', where volunteers shout times and stations in reply to questions with the rapidity-and accuracy of Datas. "Quite easy," says one of the volunteers, who is a managing director in private life. "You have only 52 important trains to i-emember; for the rest you take your ' A B C ' out'of your pocket." Bed v and blue slips are distributed, giving the most important centres of the United Kingdom and the stations whence the: trains depart. ['' More volunteers shepherd the soldiers to the, Underground subway. More and more,at different points direct them to the right platform'and the right end, of it. A railway warrant to London carries the soldier to any part of the 1 metropolis; a through .warrant/franks,'him on, the Underground and the Tube between main stations. ' '

Some soldiers i arrive penniless, but they can always 'get an .advance up to £2. That is paid at the Buckingham Palace Hotel. Young women of the Women's Ambulance escort' them there in batches, and then. escort them back to the Underground. , Frequently a. thousand' men a day are thus conducted; on one recent.day there were 13(D0. Twenty "per cent, of the returning soldiers go from ■ Paddiiigton to the west country: the homes of the remainder are in London,- the Midlands, the North, and Scotland. On 1 the return journey to the front, at the train leaves before seven in the morning, cubicles are provided in contiguous rest-huts for men who require them—bed and breakfast for about a shilling. The Volunteers are the Station Company of the National Guard (6th City of London Volunteers, Victoria Station Service). They want, more men for the work, particularly from Mondays to Fridays, . when the trains arrive between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. They appeal to clubmen with afternoons to spare for this excellent employment, which is highly appreciated by the soldiers, though their thanks are generally confined to a jolly smile. It is officially rnled that the work comes under the heading of Temporary Military Service.' An appeal is made for men over military ago and ineligible for.s Classes A and B.