GIFTS FOR BE GUMS SOLDIERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11482, 2 September 1915, Page 3

GIFTS FOR BE GUMS SOLDIERS.

RICEIVED FMM A'l PASTS OF TuE WORLD. (By HENRY N. HALL, in the Boston "Globe.") "'lf you want to see how the hearts of women throughout tho wijrl'-i have : been touched by the woes of Bdguun, and how they are all anxious to help the soldiers who are defending what ; is left of our country, come ( with me to the Alagadn do la Reirio. ' One of King Albert's sfr.ff officers, a-tall, handsome major of the Guide-., was inviting me to visit the place where gifts sent from ail countries Belgian soldiers in the field are received, sorted and prepared lor thstributioa to the men at the front. The building is a large white stone one, by far the most pretentious building in La Panne. Jt is he re J" King Albert is popularly supposed to , live. At the entrance gate stands a sentry and a regular guard is mount- j : ed, 'just as if he actually lived theie. ; FROM ALL OVER THE \V<JKLI>. j Apart from these men, who have j their quarters in tne basement, no one j lives in the house, which is pack"! j from the 'spacious reception rooms ot , the ground floor to the uppermost : garret with tho most extracranial} ! assortment of packages and goods ever got together 'under one roof. All the furniture has been removed with the exception of the big gold framed mirrors and consoles. and here and there on a marble mantelpiece a heavy bronze or closk has been left in its place, but nothing else. All carpets and floor coverings have been taken away and the walls are entirely bare of pictures. On a level with the courtyard tho ' tesselated floor of neat Belgian tiles is covered with big packing cases shipped from New York, London, Rome [ and other big centres where commiti tees exist for the collection and forwarding of gifts. Some cases contain only one kind or article, suc-h as blankets, shoes, etc; i others are filled with separate packages | neatly wrapped and labelled and containing some personal gifts generally made by the sender herself. ALL THE WAY FROM AUSTRALIA, i Thousands of these personal gifts are also received direct by parcel post, ana there is a big room on the next fioor in which the gifts are unpacked and classified. Let us take one of the parcels haphazard and see what is done with it. Here is a small package dene up 111 brown paper, sent from Melbourne, .Australia. It is opened an<t found to contain one green woollen muffler, about four feet long, and a pair of grey. woollen socks. There is a little note thrust inside one of the socks. It says: "With be t wishes for the triumph of a just cause.'' There is a signature and an address. The letter is taken and riled away. It will be answered by one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, who will send a little note of thanks. The grey socks are mighty welcome. They are added to a big pile of other socks, of all. colours and sizes, some j bought in stores and some knitted by j hand, some thick and some thin, but j all badly needed, fur woollen _ socks : come near to being the oni"; thing of ; which the men in the trendies stand j most in need. _ ; The green muffler is really too small to be of any great use It will be distributed of courae, but it will probably go to a sick man who is convalescing and needs something to put around his neck when he goes out of doors. It is neither big enough nor heavy enough for the men exposed to the weather they are getting on the Yser. A woman who is passing on the goods says s MUFFLERS NEED TO BE LARGE. i "It is wonderful how big a muffler j ! has to be to wear over the heavy I uniforms of the men. The best and most useful kind of a muffler is knitted hollow, like a stocking, :-o that; one end can be pulled over the head to cover the ears, and then the rest can be wound around the neok.^ " That is the only kind of a muffler which really protects the men and keeps them warm through the long, cola night, ln.it it should be six reef long: and less than lo per cent of the ones we receive answer that description." This * : s only too plainly evident in looking over the enormous piles of gifts, nearly every one of which repre- j sents some personal effort 0:1 the pa ri < of the maker. Tho thing-, that have j been bought usually come in large lots. i Some men will send fifty dozen pairs : of socks or ten doaen mufflers, and these gifts come wrapped bv the stores they were ordered from with just a vi.iiing card inside bearing some such inscription n;i Good luck "or " For the men in the trenches" or '"'Bravo, Belgium." But it is.the other gifts that make up the bulk and offer the greatest varietv. They come mainly from the United States and from Canada and Australia, as at least 60 per cent oi* the accompanying letters are written in Eng'ish, although quite a few of tho donors from English-speaking countries write their little notes in French. Astonishingly few of the contributions are anonymous, but some do come without any add re"s and iu : t a card sisrnod bv " A Friend of Belgium" or " Fair Play." COLOURS DON'T MATTER. Although the American, British and | French Red Cress Societies have held exhibitions of the kind of g'fts to make for tho soldiers, and have issued printed instructions for those who are doing the kn tting, very little attention has been paid to them. The average woman thinks she knows best what to send, and as she is making it herself, she makes it according to her own ideas. At least half of the things sent are too small. The mufflers are too short, and 1 the gloves and the socks sent are often sizes too small. The usual size of boot served out for the w inter campaign was s : ze 13., and very few were used smaller than size 10. Tho heavy woolen socks worn inside a' No. 9 boot caused congestion, prevented the circulation of the blood, and led to more frost bitten feet than anything cLe. But when tho b ggerj boot was. filled up with a couple of pairs of thick socks, the feet remained warm and comfortable. But it wa.s in colours perlinp- even more than in sham) or size.rhat Ibcj gifts might have been improved. upon. ; An extraord nary amount of green and mauve wool was used up by people who j ! knit for the soldier*. They had evi-j | d'ent.v been told to use light colour*. \ and. wliiie T saw only two or three pu»K 1 I inufilers., there- were dozen; of green j and mauve ones., and not- ;j. le>v light ; ; blue. ; But. that dd not iv-ally rvarc-o-. The t i preititsr ;j rt shade. of we'd v.; 1 ! !e:-" il>| '< irichness in ;i few hours in the t'V'.eli ■ j and fo ]ong as the oe!o;y- v,t:v l':..ht it va« a]] right. The o;-dy exec-ptjou made was r<g.";ir-t red.. t'm. inere.rii'>ie i as it may seen, some people had knit! cape and muOlers of tho colon" cl r r -c seahng wax. These were all sen l : down ;to the hospital:-, for use among the 1 | convalescents. Th s was also tie d"S-; j position of the many fiannci dress.ng- : i gowns and bathrobes sent, and or t- 13 worsted _ slippers,, seine or which were neatly line.!.. j USE FOR EVERYTHING. ' | But it is, of cc:.:v..f\ the u:<i or I inappropj : uzr .hi:i v - ti.n; af--1 f h'- 1 over i> isi:i.■' •5 *• {of lh.s avseripion. Tiv? y.rea t »:a i TOOLS, SUXDRIFS

ty of thi> things were of the utmosfcj possible use, and were most thankfully Jeceivd and used. ' During one month more than 60.000 pairs, of woollen socks, 30,000 mufllers and stomach bands, 30,000 pairs of ( gloves and a vast quantity of other; things, eiich as lieavy vests, woolen wr st warmers, caps of all kinds and sizes, and heavy underclothing, were., taken from the Ala" as in de la Reino and distributed to the men in tho trenches. There were also large quantities ,of what one might _ call Regular Army supplies, as distinguished from tbe personal gifts mentioned above. Many ol these were contributed by private individuals, and even by the Governments al'ied with Belgium. Thus Great Britain sent over <50.000 pairs of Army boots for King Albert's men at the beginning of February, and there were hundreds of dozens of heavy flannel shirts, of woollen undervests and drawers, contributed bv wellv.ishers, over ami above the Regular Army supplies ordered and paid for by tho Belg an Government.. Then, in addition to clothing, many ereature comforts were sent over. One ' British nobleman sent over 1,000,000 cigarettes, and large quantities of tobacco, chocolate and preserves were g ven. Everything outside of the Regular Army supplies went to La Panne for distribution and pa-ssed through the big white house. In every case where directions were sent with the g ft, the donor s wishes were scrupulous v complied with. Thus [ saw a whole boxful of gifts marked " pour les blesses " (for the wounfjed). and every one of the things made with that intention was distributed through the hospitals. EVERY GIFT ACKNOWLEDGED. Tho utmost care was taken in acknowledging the receipt of the gifts* wherever the donor could be traced. In most cases, of course, a letter or card accompanied the parcel, but sometimes the sender's name was only written on the outside, and had been more or less obliterated by constant handling or by a "postmark i Although the Belgian soldiers did not have quite as many luxuries as were showered upon Tomigy Atkins by Great Britain and her colonies, their gifts came from a wider circle and had a far more personal touch. It was a remarkable demonstration of how the world, and especially how the women all over the world, feel about Belgium, and how genuine is the admiration her soldiers have won.