XXVIII
LADY LUGARD AND THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
Inher work for the great population of Belgian refugees, who came over to England in the first months of war, Lady Lugard has helped to carry out one of the highest missions to suffering humanity. Quick to grasp the significance of the German advance through Belgium, Lady Lugard, in the first week of war, turned her thoughts to the plight of the unfortunate women and children driven from their ruined homes with nothing left to them save life itself. Where were they to go, and what was to become of them? Obviously England offered the only safe refuge.
Lady Lugard knew of the complete and detailed arrangements which had been worked out during the summer of 1914 for the reception of refugees from Ulster, in the event of the anticipation of civil war being realised. Understanding the importance of rapid action and the value of a good organisation, Lady Lugard asked the help of the Ulster leaders, who willingly placed their machinery at the disposal of workers in such a worthy cause. After enlisting the support of Cardinal Bourne and the leaders of theRoman Catholic Church, and having obtained the consent and advice both of the Foreign Office and of the Belgian authorities, Lady Lugard, with the help of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, formed a committee. But there was little time for deliberation or arrangement before she and her helpers were rushed into action. Warned on one day that a shipload of possibly a thousand refugees might be with them on the next, they had immediately to arrange offices, raise funds, and prepare accommodation. Mr. Norrie-Miller, the manager of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, placed offices at the committee’s disposal free of charge, and secured the nucleus of a clerical staff. The organisation decided to be known as the War Refugees Committee. Its non-political and non-sectarian character was marked by the fact that Lord Hugh Cecil became chairman and Lord Gladstone treasurer, while the Roman Catholic and Jewish Churches were represented among its members. Lady Lugard and Mrs. Lyttelton at once proceeded to issue an appeal through the newspapers. The response was overwhelming. All England was burning with admiration and pride at the great part which Belgium was playing. Throughout the country, from homes humble and great, rich and poor, money and offers of help flowed in on such a scale that, even with the best endeavours, it took many days before they could be acknowledged and classified. Eagerness to help the victims whose suffering was part of the price Belgium had to pay in her fight for honour was England’s tribute of admiration.
The next question was the momentous one of temporary accommodation for the refugees on arrival.With the assistance of an ever-increasing group of willing volunteer workers, the War Refugees Committee soon arranged for beds and food to be prepared in the buildings placed at their disposal. These were hastily improvised as hostels, with the help of generous loans of linen and crockery. If the accommodation at first was sketchy, there were at least beds and food for all who came, and eager sympathy and welcome.
They needed all the help and comfort which could be given to them, these dazed and terrified people, with the haunted look of horror on their faces. They had endured experiences which our civilisation could have ascribed only to a bygone age, and which we little thought could pollute the earth again.
During the next weeks the stream of refugees flowed into London in ever greater numbers. The work of the War Refugees Committee soon classified itself automatically into departments. The clerical department had to cope with correspondence which, within a fortnight, had mounted to many thousands of letters a day containing money contributions and placing accommodation for 100,000 people at the disposal of the committee. Refugees had to be received on arrival and temporarily housed. The question then arose of their allocation to more permanent quarters and of arranging that offers of hospitality from all over the country should be responded to by suitable allotment of refugees. From the first it was found advisable to decentralise as much as possible and to allow the local committees formed throughout the country to make most of the detailed arrangements for allocation. These committees numbered before long between two and threethousand. Questions of transport and clothing were in the hands of other rapidly organised departments.
Every day the number of refugees increased, and members of the committee worked almost without rest day and night. In the first week of September a Government invitation was published offering refuge in England to the Belgian civilian population. The magnitude of the task thus became beyond the management of a group of private individuals, and the committee was relieved of a certain amount of anxiety by the provision of refuges on a big scale in London at Government expense. Though the work was now extended and receiving Government assistance, it was to the War Refugees Committee, which about this time was placed by mutual consent under the general direction of Lord Gladstone, that the authorities turned to carry on the great task. The committee has continued to work throughout in close co-operation with the Government Departments, particularly the Local Government Board. Large buildings, such as the Alexandra Palace and the Earl’s Court Exhibition Buildings, were taken over and prepared for the reception of the refugees, serving as clearing-houses whence they could be sent on to the provinces, where arrangements for hospitality were made both by local communities and by private individuals. The staff of voluntary helpers in London soon reached 500, who threw themselves with undaunted energy and devotion into the task which Lady Lugard herself has described as “the consolation of a nation by a nation.”
In all her personal intercourse with the Belgian refugees, especially of the working class, LadyLugard has said that what struck her most was their pathetic fortitude and the way in which in their hour of desperate need they clung to their religion. Chapels and oratories were rapidly established wherever Belgians were received, and the Roman Catholic Church and community worked unremittingly to comfort and console them. “I don’t know how many thousand rosaries I distributed in those days,” said Lady Lugard afterwards; “wherever I went the Belgians seemed to clamour for them above everything.” It should also be mentioned that the Jewish community in London took a very active part in helping their co-religionists among the refugees.
From September till Christmas, 1914, the flow of refugees continued—the fall of Antwerp in October bringing a tremendous rush of work amid surging crowds. On one day in October the number of refugees handled by the Committee amounted to 6621. By February, 1915, their arrival in anything like large numbers had practically ceased; but other problems sprang up. It became obvious that the war was to last longer than the few months which optimists of the early days prophesied. It was therefore decided, after considerable hesitation, that it was better, both in their own interests and in those of the community at large, that the Belgians, who had lived almost entirely as guests, should be allowed to work and to become gradually self-supporting.
In the two years which have elapsed, the working-class people who formed the bulk of the refugees, while giving still some occasion for pre-occupation and expense to their own and to the British Governments, have become practically absorbed. In theever-increasing demand for labour, the Belgians, who are known to be among the best craftsmen and labourers in Europe, have found a ready market for their work.
There has remained the comparatively small number of refugees of a different class, unaccustomed to earn their own living, but rendered destitute as the poorest artisans by the devastation of their country. The great initial work accomplished, Lady Lugard and the many others who had by this time become absorbed in the work of consolation turned to making suitable provision for this group, which included families of high social position, artists and professionals in many spheres of work, men and women suddenly snatched from circumstances of prosperity and ease and confronted with the problems of bare existence. To assist these unfortunate people Lady Lugard organised a small hospitality committee. She and her helpers proceeded to arrange a system in London, and similar arrangements have been evolved on private initiative in the great centres in the provinces. In London large houses were placed one by one at the committee’s disposal, and social groups of Belgian families were established in them. In these hostels, family life is as far as possible reproduced, questions of education, health, and clothing receive special care and attention, and the attempt has been made to classify the houses in such a way as to bring friends and potential friends into the same circles. The results have been most satisfactory. The domestic management is undertaken in each house by a competent manager, sometimes Belgian, sometimes English, appointed by Lady Lugard’s committee. Many of the managers are lady volunteers,who give the whole of their time to the promotion of happiness and comfort in what one of the guests has described as “ces petits coins de Belgique.” The one rule of the committee is to try and make the Belgians happy. If their lives are necessarily restricted and limited by circumstances, these Belgian guests are at any rate living in quiet resting-places, recovering, it is hoped, from the shock of their experiences, educating their children, and meanwhile possessing their souls in patience till the day of their country’s liberation.
The numbers in which the Belgian population took refuge in England from first to last have been so great, and the rush in the beginning so bewildering, that it would have been impossible to carry out a work of necessity hastily improvised without mistakes and difficulties. Lady Lugard is the first to admit how far the schemes fell short of the perfection which she had hoped to achieve. But when the story of this flight of a nation is told, history will remember, not the misunderstandings, the mistakes in detail, or the want of foresight, which seem inevitable in all human undertakings, but the way in which the English people opened their arms in welcome to the Belgians, and their desire to comfort and to heal. To Lady Lugard personally must be ascribed full recognition for a truly great service. By her promptitude, her imagination and her unsparing gifts of energy and devotion she stands out amongst the throng of splendid volunteers in the service of Belgium.