"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3277, 3 January 1917, Page 51

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Ladies' Page)

FACING THE WINTER. October 31

Tho cold rain beats and teats upon the windows, and tho angry wind screams round tho cottage moaning in the chimneys, roaring over the fields, crashing among the trees, and tossing tho leader, waves of the Channel into turbulent foam —a wild day after a wild, wicked night preceded by days and nights of storm, in Which tho roar of the wind and the sea have blended.

But on the night of October 26 it was still and dark when the Germans raided the Channel. It was about midnight, and I was between sleeping and waking when tho sound of the guns roused me. These were not the ghost-guns so often heard m the summer stillness, nor were they the barking of the anti-aircraft guns —and they were not in tho direction of Dover, but across the Channel. After listening to about a dozen irregular and smothered detonations,. "They are from the Channel," I decided, and the guns of ships, but never thinking that the Germans had actu ally got through to the back of the Goodwins, past our watch and the mines. I had been derided so often when I had suggested that one dark night they might do just what they had done, and been assured that tho Channel was impregnable, or if by any improbability the enemy ships did come in they would never get out again, that after watching what I mistook for flashes ef lightning, and which were flashes of gunfire and a great flare of an exploding ship, I went back to bed and went calmly to sleep in the pauses of tho firing, little thinking tho Germans were almost on tho shore,' and that I had witnessed the flare of the destruction of one of our ships. The surprise to England was unpleasant. The numerous comments on tho boldness and daring of tho stroke which the German destroyers attempted—to interfere with the cross-Channel transport of troops —is a more venturcsome sally than any for which the destroyers from Zcebrugge have become notorious'. The purpose of the enemy is clear: if they could only succeed in cutting off communications with France the pressure on the Somme would bo relieved. The torpedoers and U boats for some time past have aimed at interfering with the continual cross-Channel stream of transports and munition boats. So far not a single life has been lost _in transport, which is wonderful considering tho vast armies of men, and the countless tonnage of stores and munitions that have gone across, and the armies of wounded that have returned.

it gives one a strange sense of the nearness of the war to look out of the window the?e dark nights and to realise that beyond the harboured ships and the Good wins the enemy destroyers lurk, watching in the ports of the opposite shores for the first opportunity to slip out and destroy us. The gales of the past week doubtless aided their purpose. And what it must be like at sea one can guess bj- the ravage on shore. A village in ""Essex was almost completely destroyed by the gale, the roofs of houses blown" off, garden walls blown down, and trees uprooted. One of the worst gales experienced has been rasing in the Channel for several clays and nights, and at Deal it was impossible for the lifeboat to go out to aid shipping flying signals of distress, the Kingsdown lifeboat going instead. At Salcombe Bar (Devon) the lifeboat, with a crew of 15. was going to the relief of a vessel in distress, and was capsized, 13 brave men out of the 15 being drowned. Wo have begun our winter very early this year. October has been more-wintry than' was December last year, and one counts the months drearily before one can face another spring—November, December, January, February, March—six months of cold and the need of fires and warm clothing and heat-producing food. But if the prices continue to rise at the present rales there will be hunger and cold in many a homo in Britain before summer comes again, and sickness and death. Iliige rises in the price of wheat have gone on steadily during the past four months; it is 22s per quarter higher, and this week the rise was ss. This is 6s higher than at any previous time during the war, top price being 77s per quaTter. A general complaint is that the shortage of experienced labour has led to a reduced crop The sensational rise during the part week lias brought the price of wheat well above the famine prices of the Crimean war, which never reached higher than in 185. C, at 74s per quarter. And the diminished foreign supnly will, it is feared, keep up prices. This will moan a corresponding rise in the price of the loaf. How the poor of all clashes will fare this winter will be a problem, for potatoes are -rising to prices never before known, and. it is anticipated, will not stop at 3d per lb. nnc! there are verv few potatoes to the lb. Fish is dearer than fowl. At Billingsgate at the week-end fish was dearer than at anv time during the war. Pole:--, were 3s 3d per lb, cod Is l£d (weighed with the head and insides), plaice Is 7d, tnrbot 2s 9d, kippers 5d and 6d per pair, and e\erv description of fish had risen in proportion. Nor is fish any cheaper at the seaside than in London. Herrings, which at one time could be had two and three a penny, fresh from the sea, are now fetching 2d and 3d each. The breakfast problem is being solved in many homes by bread and margarine. The price cf eggs has risen this week in many places 'from 3d to 3Jd or 4d. Bacon, cheese, all tinned fish, potted and tinned* meats, and i'am3 have greatly increased in price. Rice, like sugar, is one of the things that come from the grocer labollcd with a "war time request " v not to use more of it. than can possibly be helped. There is no chance of using th tfugar. for it is not forthcoming, and

whatever the poor people do with children at meatless meals, with milk at 6d a quart and no sugar or jam for their puddings, it is difficult to say. And the potato will soon vanish. But, with the shortage of sugar, it is an inexplicable thing why the Government allows the enormous quantities to be used by confectioners and sweetmeat makers. The icings on cakes is not necessary, nor is half the confectionery and sweetmeats. It would be taking a superfluity off tho rich for the nourishment of tho poor. There are more iced cakes eaten at afternoon tea in England than would supply every family in tho land with sufficient sugar so used. And the labour used up in this overabundance of confectionery would readjust itself. There is a call for a million more women for war work, for munition factories, and training centres. They are asking for volunteers for the training schools (which are free) at tho rate of 800 to 1000 a week. The home women, the women who can cut and sew are appealed to, as handling the raw materials for munitions is not difficult, only a delicate touch and accurate eye and the ordinary physical strength of youth being required. The appeal is not to those who are already engaged upon important war work, such as nursing and the other work of necessity, it seems as though the whole of the women of England are working—women police, postwomen, milkwomen, women engineers, ticket collectors, porters, conductors, chauffeurs, bus drivers, messenger girls, waitresses, conductresses, and a whole noble army of them—the old women, doing the unpaid jobs of minding their daughters' children, Keeping house, doing the marketing, the mending, and generally " mothering " —filling the niches behind the scenes. And yet, despite this great battalion of women workers, more and still more are needed. The women slackers you will find in the smart tea rooms and restaurants and shopping centres. It will-soon be as much a disgrace for a women to be seen out of uniform or overalls, without a very good reason, as it is for a man to be out of khaki. Tho women must be had for the nation's work, and the men must be had from the Empire for the army. Women painters, women sculptors, women musicians, and women writers are in the munition factories side by side with domestic Ladies of title are pa'ls with the ordinary factory girl ; in the hospitals young women and girls are growing old and worn and grey before "their time with the overburden of their arduous tasks and days and nights of anxiety. And for any woman, the Empire over, to take no part in the colossal work of the nation is to announce herself selfish and shallow, willing that others already burdened, should be overburdened with her part also. The Queen is calling for moro aid for her Needlework Guild. I went through the wards of a hospital the other afternoon to visit seme of the poor fellows back from the Somme. The sister in charge and the nurses (avlio had more than 100 patients in their charge) Jooked almost as pale and as worn, but as brightly smiling, as seine of the faces on the pillows. For there had been some very bad cases, and they had not stinted their unromunerated toil and care, but had given the best of their skill and experience. There had been 10 operations in two days, and the strain on sensitive, sympathetic nurses is no light one, apart from the physical strain of the long hours of tasks upon their feet. They go miles a day up and down stairs and through the wards. And one cannot but think with surprise of the strong slackers, both men and women, who are shirking their part. There was one boy there, not more than 19 or 20, with a tube in his lung to breathe through, but who would pant out his smiling appreciation of all that was done for him. " It's more like a home than a hospital. Sister is always about me." Another poor fellow, who had all but bled to death from a severed artery lay white as the sheets on his bed, but managed to say through his colourless lips, " It is good to be hei*e." The women of New Zealand amonothose of tho overseas Dominions have been generous both with their labour and their money, but could they see these brave fellows in the military hospitals between their spotless sheets smiling and grateful no toilsome self-denying hour would be too much. "I feel like a lord," said one. "By gum! but this is different to tho trenches." Here and there by a bedside sit a young wife or mother who have been wired for and have • come from lonrr distances, and lodge as near the hospital as may be. "Oh, he's much, better today!' comes the fervently thankful reply to jouir question, and in" the pale quiet face the woman turns you read the long waiting and the fear that has passed. All over tiio land and from beyond it tno doctors and the nurses are giving the women of the Empiro back their nien, easing their pain, or comforting their dying. Go on helping all you can : do not slacken or grow stale in effort. The need is colossal. The Red Cross trains come streaming in ceaselessly, the ambulances with their red crosses block everv station from the front, and nass and re*pass where the pleasure motor cars used to be. Every pair of socks and mittens that yon send, or pillowcase or nightshirt, finds its mission in the trenches, where again this third winter our men are wading in mud—holding our honour and our homes in the pitiless rain that drenches thorn to tho skin. Thero is always some demand? There always will be till this war is over. And that is not yet. We want more men—and still the Empire over strong young giants are hiding on the farms and in tho pits. But particularly on tho farms. Wo want a million more women to take tho places of the men. Tho women we shall get, they will answer to the call. Shall we get the men ? We must have them or let the Empire go. It is no use waiting expecting a miracle to happen. No miracle will happen except through the heroism of the Empire. I wish you were

near enough to hear the guns, to sec the Red Cross trains come in, to meet the ambulances, to visit the military hospitals and talk to the men. While they still suffer they talk of going back. But they "think the slackers should do their bit."