COMFORTS FOR THE SOLDIERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 174, 28 August 1914, Page 3

COMFORTS FOR THE SOLDIERS.

The following article, from a Melbourne paper, may with equal appropriateness be addressed to the women oi. the Dominion:- — The work of providing various necessaries and comforts for the soldiers is rapidly advancing. It is good to see that so much effort is being spent on those most necessary objects, handknitted woollen socks. Cholera belts will also be essential, if our men go to the tropics. It seems most useful that amateur- helpers should devote their energies to making articles such as these, rather than to the task of providing bandages, which are rolled in hospitals with a special appliance. Australian women, like other people, learned something from the mistakes they made during the Boer war. The contribution we are now about to" give is much more likely to be of use than the waggon loads of garments and bandages made by enthusiastic women, which were often burned on the veldt because no one knew what to do with them. The right note was struck at the Town Hall meeting when it was suggested that wc should work, not only for our own 20,000 men, whose wants the women of Australia could quickly supply, but that after furnishing them with what they need, we should send all we can to Europe to help the soldiers there. It is now the middle of August; in another month autumn will be close at ha lid in the old world. The evenings will begin to get chilly, and the soldiers in camp, often wet through and hungry, will suffer bitterly from cold. If the winter comes upon them while they are still in Belgium, or when they are in the plains of Northern Germany, many of them will perish of cold, particularly the British and French soldiers, who are not accustomed to such a severe winter as the Germans. Even our utmost, efforts will do little to mitigate the severe'sufferings that the soldiers undergo. But we can do something; dacli warm garment that reaches the front will help one wonan's son to struggle through adverse conditions. •In the history of every winter campaign in Europe we read of the cold, the terrible cold, sometimes more deadly than the enemy's bullets. What garments will be the most useful? If one could give a soldier only one warm garment for a winter campaign there is little doubt that it ought to be a pair of hand-knitted socks. Dry, warm feet are one of the material considerations that help to decide the fate of armies. If our gifts ever reach the front we can scarcely send too many pairs of socks for the' thousands of feet that are marching through Belgium and France into Germany. So that every woman who is able to knit, and is not yet in touch with any organisation for providing comforts for soldiers, may set to work at once to make some pairs of socks, knowing that no gift will be more appreciated by troops at the front. Here is something that can be done by women in lonely bush homes, who are longing to help, but who are too far away from other women to work in cooperation with them.

It is not only for our 20,000 men that this great united effort is being made. Australian women hope that their general contribution will be as large and effective as possible. Those who have no time to spare have money to give. In this land of plenty, where so much money is spent on luxuries and amusements, all, except those who are oirt of work owing to dislocation of trade caused by the war, can give something, /howeyer little. Compared with the sacrifices that are imposed on women at the other end of the world, any selfdenial that we may exercise will be small indeed. All the more reason why we, who are losing so much less than our sisters in Eu.rope, should make a free, voluntary gift of-whatever we can spare.- .So far the women have made a widespread response; it ought soon to be a universal one, so that everyone can feel that she has contributed her mite towards lessening the sufferings caused by this war.