BLINDED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16039, 25 January 1918, Page 4

BLINDED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

THE ST. DUNSTAN HOSTEL. Sir Arthur Pearson, chairman of the Blinded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Care Committee, London, wrote to Mr. i. Asher, treasurer of the New Plymouth Women’s Patriotic Committee, on October 20, 1917, as follows;—"! enclose an official receipt for £SO, and with it 1 hope you "will convey to the committee and members an expression of renewed most cordial thanks on behalf of the gallant men who will agam so materially benefit. Wo are allocating this sum to our After-Care Fund, of which particulars iciosed. This scheme, for Blind'nm: i, .. .tself responsible, forms essentially i.ie most important part of the work of St. Dunstan’s, whereby we ensure that the training given will not be wasted, but that our men will receive that future supervision and assistance so necessary in the case of the blind worker. You will, I am sure, be interested to learn that the re-educa-tion and training of these men is proceeding in a manner that surpasses the most sanguine expectations I had formed when St. Dunstan’s was started, and that those tvho have loft- us are, with scarcely an exception, taking up | their lives anew with a confidence and ability that seemed quite impossible to them in the early days of their handicap.” WHAT IS BEING DONE. A few brief extracts from the report of St. Dunstaii’s Hostel for the year ended March,3l, 1917, give an idea'of the work which is being done. St. Dunstan’s, Regent Park, is a magnificent house and estate generously placed at the disposal of the Blinded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Care Committee by Mr. Otjo Kahn, a well-known American financier,, and it had to be immensely enlarged since the first annual report, owing to the sadly increasing nunibers of blinded fighters. Besides this hostel there are quite a number of annexes in. various parts of London' and yet another roomy house- and a smaller dwelling at Brighton for men who are still convalescent. At tho time the report was written the blind inmates of Bt. Dunstan’s and its annexes were 351 in number and the accommodation had recently been extended to a degree which would make it possible to welcome nearly as many more. Two hundred and twenty-four men had to that date passed out, having learnt one, and sometimes more than one of the following occupations: Massage, shorthand writing, telephone operating, boot repairing, mat-making, bas-ket-making, joinery, poultry farming, and market gardening. It is interesting to note, continues the report, that the Australian and Canadian authorities use every inducement to persuade blinded Australian and Canadian soldiers to remain in England for a sufficiently long time to acquire practical training at St. Dunstan’s. There are in the hostel, at time of writing this report, blinded sold-ers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Tasmania and Newfoundland. . . Every effort is made to re-equip men for their original occupations and some striking successes have resulted. It is,, of course, only' seldom that a blinded mam can resume the occupation* wdiich he pursued before his disablement, but no opportunity is -missed of enabling men to take up their former work.

SDBSCRIPTIONS FROM PUBLIC. Tho whole of tho expenses of training and settling the men of St. Dunstan’s during Die past year have been defrayed by generous grants from the National Relief Fund, whose committee have also defrayed tho cost of the many temporary buildings which it has been found necessary to erect. The upkeep expenses of St. Dunstan’s are defrayed by the National-Institute for tho Blind. The generous subscriptions which have been sent by the public are used for such special expenditure as is involved by the payment of fares and the free entertainment of rela'tivos of men in hospital or at St. Dunstan’s. . . These subscriptions also defray the cost of typewriters and other expensive apparatus, of necessary motor-cars, and other extraordinary expenditure. 'Any balance remaining will be eventually allocated to tho After-Care Scheme.” This after-care scheme provides for keeping in touch with the men after their training is over, supervising their work, providing raw materials of tho best quality and at. cost price, marketing their goods and securing continuity of well-paid employment in the occupations for which the men are fitted. A large settled fund is required to adequately accomplish this work, which has been organised on a permanent basis. Sir Arthur Pearson appeals for the means to enable these men to fight their stern battle against ,feo terrible a handicap as the loss of sight. CHILDREN OF BLINDED SOLDIER^ Another important branch of the work is the care of the children of these blinded soldiers and this requires a large sum of money—not less than £250,000. The married men with children receive from the Government a weekly allowance for each child they may have and for every child born within nine months of the time of their discharge. But of course there is no allowance for the children born after the man has left the army, nor any allowance for the children of men who marry after their disablement. Marriage is obviously the happiest fate that could befall the young soldier who has lost his sight' and Sir Arthur Pearson would like to see all the single men married. But to make an allowance of 5s a week for each child until the age of, sixteen would require the provision of the sum already named to assure the payment of the allowances.