PEOPLE WEARYING OF THEIR' TASK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 26 April 1918, Page 5

PEOPLE WEARYING OF THEIR' TASK.

The following article, written by ''Imogen" for the Dominion, indicates that there is a slackening of effort in the splendid Red Cross work which women have done. As there may be a tendency to become tired of devoting time and energy to this very necessary task, workers will no doubt be stimulated by reading "Imogen's" words: Weeks have now passed by since the beginning of the great German offensive, and one begins to wonder if the women in this city realise what it is costing us. If so, there is very little evidence to show that this is the case. A visit to the Red Cross depots the one in Mercer street and the other in the Star- Boating Club sheds, which should show striking activity at such a time as this, discloses nothing of the kind. If anything, there are even fewer workers thero than ever before, and those who do go to these rooms to work are not girls or young women, but principally women with households and families to look after, who somehow or another manage to make time in the midst of their daily duties to take au additional burden of work upon then* shoulders for the sake of .the men who are fighting and dying with so superb a valor on the fields of France and Flanders. What are our young women doing with their spare time? That they have spare time, and quite a considerable amount it, is very evident, and yet the work of these depots is hampered and hindered, for want of workers. For many months the depot in the Star Boating Club shed has been in need of the services of a secretary (gratuitously given, as all Rpd Cross work surely ought to be), and yet no one has been found to undertake the duties, so that the superintendent has been forced to take them upon her own shoulders, in addition to other work. Should such a state of things be allowed to exist for a moment if women fully realised how great is the need for every effort they can put forth? That there should be such a "going slow" both "as regards output and number of workers at such a time as this is incredible, and seems to show a startling want of imagination and understanding. In all the vivid pictures that have been penned by correspondents could there be found anything that pulls at the heartstrings more than this, the picture given by Philip Gibbs: "I saw," he writes, ''a small party so weary of this endless battle that they could scarcely walk. They were even holding hands like tired children, but their heads were up gamely and undismayed." The incredible magnificence of them! Tbe unconquerable/ incomparable valor of these British men! And the tragedy of it!

The extreme urgency of Red Cross need can be gathered from the telegrams sent out to His Excellency the Governor-General by the Secretary for State so early in the year asking for a repetition of this country's efforts for the "Our Day" appeal. It is not only money that is needed, it is hospital equipment, comforts, and material, because of the unceasing demands that have been made upon their supplies at Home and because of the shortage that has followed upon the closing down of so many industries ! owing to more urgent war needs. With this the case then it is obvious that the first and foremost of our energies are needed for*the supply of all hospital equipment in preference to any other form of >war work, because of the great 6tream of wounded that is incessantly pouring into the hospitals of France and Britain, the aftermath of this terrible offensive. The fact that for the first time since the outbreak of war the British Red Cross has had to face a deficit —a sum of £197,792 —has also to be taken into consideration, although the administrative expenses have decreased from 7d in the £ to 4d.

For these reasons ona would look to see almost a frenzy of work, a fury of enthusiasm in possession of every woman who has time or energy at ' her disposal or determination and sacrifice enough to make that time in which she can do something for the gallant men in the fighting area. It is not the time for a shortage of output from the depots compared with last year, or a shortage of workers. We have only to think of tho battlefield, where the pride of our race make "their most agonising submission to the will of God," and so realise what a privilege it is for those living in safety and comfort to lessen their pain with all that science can devise, our work provide, and money buy. In this way only can we help to pay our great debt of gratitude for the devotion and the heroism that are hourly shown in the face of inconceivable horrors by that •'unexampled manhood meeting death with unexampled scorn and sacrifice."