XIX
MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E., AND THE HON. MRS. ANSTRUTHER
Thesupply of literature to our soldiers has been an undertaking of gigantic proportions. It was a woman who in the first few days of war had the insight and imagination to realise the part that books would play in the soldiers’ lives, and the organisations for their supply which have grown up to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand have been carried on almost entirely by women workers. The collection and distribution of books to the troops is now undertaken mainly by four organisations. The Camps Library works under the War Office to supply the troops quartered both at home and in every theatre of war abroad. The War Library of the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John supplies the sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals, hospital trains, and hospital ships. The Chamber of Commerce supplies the Grand Fleet, and the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society sends to the merchant ships and smaller ships.
The need for books in hospitals speaks for itself, while for our fighting men reading is often the only form of recreation. In the various theatres of war abroad they are entirely dependent for reading matter on what may be sent to them from home. The needfor light literature and fiction is endless, to turn their thoughts from the horror or the monotony of war.
The ways in which the books are obtained are many and varied. After some months of war, the question of keeping up the supply for distribution by the libraries became a momentous one. At first the newspaper appeals brought in many thousands of volumes, financial contributions for buying books were sent, and generous gifts were received from publishers. But these supplies could not continue indefinitely on a sufficiently large scale. A wonderful solution to the problem came in August, 1915.
The Postmaster-General (Mr. Herbert Samuel) was struck, on visiting some of the camps and on seeing the men in the trenches, by the great value to them of the books already sent out. It occurred to him that the post-offices of the country might be used to become collecting depôts for the Libraries, and in consultation with Colonel Sir Edward Ward and the Hon. Mrs. Anstruther a scheme was evolved by which anyone could hand a book or magazine, unwrapped and unaddressed, over the counter of any post-office in the kingdom for the benefit of our soldiers. The collections thus made are divided in agreed proportions between the four societies already mentioned.
The War Library started work quickly. In the first week of the war, Mrs. Gaskell, her brother, Mr. Beresford Melville, and a small group of friends, made an appeal in the newspapers for literature for the sick and wounded. This was the first of all the great war appeals. The response was so rapid and so overwhelming that, even in the large house lent by Lady Battersea for the accommodation ofthe books, problems of space and of methods of distribution at once arose. But a satisfactory system was quickly evolved, and with the assistance of Dr. Hagberg Wright, librarian of the London Library, it has developed into an organisation of clockwork perfection.
Started entirely as a private undertaking, the War Library reached such proportions that by November, 1915, it was considered advisable to affiliate it to the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John, thus ensuring financial support and official facilities of distribution. The work, however, has been carried on throughout by Mrs. Gaskell and a voluntary staff of women helpers, whose duties include the unpacking and sorting of the books; the cleaning and mending of soiled and torn copies; the selection of books by a careful system which ensures that each package shall contain a choice of books and magazines to suit varied types of readers; and the packing, addressing, and despatch to the hospitals. Under the present arrangements 1810 hospitals are supplied in England and a fortnightly consignment of books is sent to 272 hospitals in France, besides the cross-Channel hospital service and hospital ships for the Colonies and foreign service. Hospitals in East Africa, Bombay, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Salonika, and Malta receive every month thousands of books and magazines, the continuous supply travelling smoothly to its destination of ambulance, casualty clearing station, or base hospital. Under the post-office scheme, several thousand books, papers, and magazines are received weekly, but in addition many gifts of books are sent direct to the War Library. There is alsoa large department of the War Library for the purchase of new books to mix with those given. A touching and remarkably successful feature, a suggestion of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, is a thin scrap-book for men who are very ill, made by devoted helpers amongst the public, in answer to a special appeal. A small department for games and puzzles has also been started in response to urgent requests from the hospitals.
Efforts are always made by the workers at the War Library to meet the individual needs of special cases brought to their notice, and this personal touch with patients in hospital is of infinite value. Men with long months of life in bed before them have been enabled, by means of the books thus provided, to study for particular professions and trades. “It is our special boast,” says Mrs. Gaskell, “that no request for literature has ever been refused by the War Library, even to selecting and packing 20,000 books in twenty-four hours, or again such a request as we had from no less than three Colonial hospitals, who asked for theEncyclopædia Britannicain forty volumes!”
The effects of the work of the War Library are so far-reaching as to be incalculable. It is safe to say that no small group of women, such as Mrs. Gaskell and her helpers, can have done more throughout the war to cheer the lonely and depressed, to amuse and interest the weary, and to turn the minds of men in pain to fresh channels which help them to forget their suffering.
The work of the Camps Library was started in October, 1914, and now consists of the colossal task of providing a systematic and regular supply ofliterature to the whole of the British Army. No application is necessary—a box or bale, varying in quantity according to the number of men, is sent out automatically about once every month or six weeks to every unit—however small—in every theatre of war. The scheme was originated by Colonel Sir Edward Ward, when making arrangements for the reception of the Overseas troops on Salisbury Plain. He then saw how necessary it was for the men to have books and magazines, and he asked the Hon. Mrs. Anstruther to assist him in forming libraries for the use of the men in their leisure hours, to relieve the monotony of the long evenings in isolated camps. From this comparatively small beginning the present system has grown up, and now every commanding officer can form a lending library of bound books for the use of his men, in every camp or regimental institute at home or abroad. These libraries of bound books are in addition to the bales of general literature which go out from the Camps Library to all units serving with the British Expeditionary Force, the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and the Indian Expeditionary Force. Each box or bale contains the greatest possible variety of literature, from a classic or standard novel to the most highly coloured penny novelette. Magazines and picture papers are always included—in fact, there is in each box sufficient variety to suit all tastes. Books and magazines are passed from unit to unit—till they literally fall to pieces, for the life of a book under war conditions cannot be a long one,—and the request for “more” is loud and persistent.
Besides these automatic consignments, special applications may be made by the chaplains of alldenominations attached to the armies in every theatre of war, who then receive for distribution fortnightly boxes in England or France, or monthly bales on the remoter fronts. The Camps Library also supplies light literature to those soldiers whose need is greater than any others’—the prisoners of war; and large libraries have been formed at most of the prisoners’ camps in Germany. Prisoners’ literature is further supplied under the Board of Education, which has started a special department for sending them books on educational and technical subjects, and prisoners’ individual requests are dealt with there.
When it is realised that since the beginning of the war over 9,000,000 publications have been handled at the Camps Library, some idea of the scope of the work may be gained. It speaks worlds for Mrs. Anstruther’s powers that she has been able to establish a smooth-running organisation on such a gigantic scale, but she and her helpers are more than rewarded for their efforts in the realisation of how much their work has meant to the soldiers. Appreciation and thanks pour in from all parts of the world. The reception of the books can be best described in a soldier’s own words: “It was a very wet day, and most of the men were lying or sitting about with nothing to do. When I said I had a box of books to lend, they were round me in a moment like a lot of hounds at a worry, and in less than no time each had got a book—at least, as far as they would go round. Those who hadn’t been quick enough were trying to get the lucky ones to read aloud. It would have done you good to see how the men enjoy getting the books.... Can we have more, as many more as you can spare?” Another officerwrites: “My battery has been in action since the beginning of November, 1914, and I can honestly say that no enterprise, public or private, has helped us more to keep the men amused and contented than the books sent by the Camps Library.” Letters such as these are eloquent testimony to workers whose labour has accomplished such a fine achievement.