THE QUEEN'S REPROOF

Evening Star, Issue 15669, 7 December 1914, Page 1

THE QUEEN'S REPROOF

Queen Mary has set her fa< c determinedly against volunteering of ladies of high social position to go to the front as nurses. " And what special work, Lady . are you engaged on ?" Her Majesty is said to have recently inquired of a certain society belle, whose beauty is more, pronounced than her thought fulness. " Ob, your Majesty," was the reply. " 1 am joining Mrs (mentioning the namo of another wellknown society woman) in the formation of a small ambulance corps, and we intend to go out as nurses." "You had far better stay at home and look after the wives and children of the. men at .he front." the Queen remarked dryly. There will be hardly ,;anv denial that the censure in this particular instance was deserved when the characteristics of the two ladies are concerned are known. There are still painful recollections in the public mind of the scandals that arose in connection with sonic aristocratic nurses who went to the front during the .South African War. Rut with Lord Kitchener there is not b'kelv to be a repetition of that sort of tiling. The War Office authorities to-day are said to be taking their cue from Queen Mary, and are sternly refusing to grant permits to amateur nurses to go to the front, recognising that in the majority of such cases the applicants are merely* actuated by a desire for notoriety, that they would prove practically useless, and be taking tho places of women who have qualified for the responsible post.