Part 1

THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE

AN ADDRESS

GIVEN BY

LADY LUGARD TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS MARCH 24th, 1915

[Illustration: [Logo]]

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.

1915

THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE

[Illustration: [Logo]]

I have been asked to speak to-day about the work of the War Refugees Committee.

The work of the War Refugees Committee is intimately associated with what will, I believe, hereafter be regarded as one of the most acutely pathetic chapters of our island history. Because we are an island, because a stretch of sea lies between us and Europe, because, above all, we have a Navy which for a thousand years has known how to defend that strip of sea, we have been able, not for the first time in our history, to offer refuge to a people stricken and driven out from their proper home.

There is no need for me to speak now of what Belgium has done—we all have the knowledge in our hearts. In the Titanic struggle in which we are engaged Belgium bore for a time the burden of the world, and the world can never forget, and never repay.

We all remember the shock of horror with which we read the first accounts of the atrocities perpetrated at Visé and Liège. But we have almost forgotten that only a few days before the outbreak of this war our eyes were turned towards another theatre of disturbance, and the outbreak of civil war in Ireland was the catastrophe we feared. For a moment I must recall it in connection with the refugees, for, strange as it may seem, the War Refugees Committee is, in a sense, the lineal descendant of the Ulster Council.

The preparations of Ulster in the early summer of last year were sufficiently public to be known to anyone who chose to be acquainted with them. Like most Irish Protestants, I was aware that in view of coming contingencies arrangements had been made for the removal of many thousands of women and children from the area which was likely to become a theatre of war. These arrangements had been made with great thoroughness. Registration and all other necessary forms had been prepared, transport had been organized and safe homes had been secured in England. The outbreak of European war mercifully averted the misfortune of war in Ireland, and when the news of the first atrocities came through from Belgium they suggested the idea, “Why not use the Ulster organization to get the Belgian women and children out if possible from under the German guns?” At that time we had of course no conception of the development which the Refugee movement was ultimately to take. The thought in my mind was mainly of women and children. I telegraphed to Captain Craig to ask whether, if such a scheme proved feasible, he would let me have the use of the Ulster organization. He telegraphed back immediately that everything they had was at my disposal for such a purpose. He sent me all their registration forms—forms which we are to-day using at the War Refugees Committee—and put me immediately in touch with people who had the necessary information. In twenty-four hours I had the embryo of an organization in my hands.

But it was evidently necessary to change what I may call the “sentiment base.” The next step was to approach the Catholic Church and to ask of Cardinal Bourne that the Catholic institutions of Great Britain and Ireland might be circularized in order to ascertain how many homes of undoubted security could be placed at the disposal of Belgian refugees. I was received with a cordiality which, I would like to say here once for all, the Catholic Church has constantly maintained towards the movement. I was assured by Monsignor Bidwell, whom Cardinal Bourne deputed to discuss the matter with me, that assuming the movement to be properly organized and to be viewed with favour by the Government, the Catholic authorities would be very ready to help.

With this amount of preparation I approached the Foreign Office, and was assured of the sympathy of Sir Edward Grey. The Local Government Board signified their approval, and the Foreign Office was good enough ultimately to arrange an interview for me with the Belgian Minister, directing me that in placing the scheme before him I was to inquire what steps his Government, in the event of their viewing the proposal with favour, would take to make the scheme known in Belgium. In accordance with these instructions I laid the scheme before the Comte de Lalaing, and in due course an answer was received from the Belgian Government accepting the proposal with gratitude, and saying that they would make the scheme known in Belgium, and would direct intending refugees to come to Ostend, whence they understood that we would take steps to bring them away.

While these negotiations were in progress the position in Belgium was becoming every day more acute, and efforts which had already been started in other quarters to alleviate this distress were suddenly brought into line with my endeavour. Lord Lytton had begun collecting contributions towards the Belgian Relief Fund from exhibitors at the recent Brussels and Ghent Exhibitions. This had led Mr. Wintour, of the Exhibitions Branch of the Board of Trade, to pay a visit to Ostend, where the homeless refugees were already congregated in large numbers. On August 22nd I was informed by Mr. Reyntiens and Mr. Wintour that they had the promise of a transport, from the Admiralty, with which they were immediately going to fetch over refugees, and that they hoped to return on the following Monday with a ship-load. I asked Mr. Reyntiens how many they proposed to bring back. He said “As many as we can get—anything from 100 to 1,000.” To the inquiry “What do you propose to do with your refugees when you bring them back?” his reply was, in effect, “We leave that to you!” There was no time to discuss the matter; it was necessary for him to go at once and get his papers ready, and I was left on Saturday morning in full sympathy with the adventure, but with the knowledge that on Monday I might be expected to receive in England 1,000 refugees.

No Committee had as yet been formed. It was evident that between Saturday and Monday a Committee had to be created. I will not delay you with a relation of the details of that Saturday and Sunday afternoon, interesting as they were at the moment to those engaged in the work. The only condition which I made was that the Committee should have no politics and no religious distinctions, and it is enough now to say that thanks mainly to the exertions of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton and Mr. H. E. Morgan a Committee was formed under the required conditions and in the required time, Lord Hugh Cecil consenting to be our Chairman and Lord Gladstone our Treasurer.

By the kindness of Mr. F. Norie-Miller, General Manager of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, Ltd., offices were placed at our disposal entirely free of charge. The nucleus of a clerical and typewriting staff was secured. A name was chosen. An appeal was sent to the papers on Sunday night, and as a net result of our exertions we were enabled on the following Monday morning to take possession as a Committee of the empty offices which have since developed into the well-known headquarters of the War Refugees Committee at Aldwych. That first morning we had hardly pens and ink, we had not chairs to sit upon, the offices were almost entirely without furniture, and while we were trying to organize our immediate plan of operations the response to our Appeal, which had appeared only in that morning’s papers, took the embarrassing if at the same time encouraging form of no less than 1,000 letters, all containing offers of hospitality and help.

The response of the country to the movement was absolutely phenomenal. The 1,000 letters of that day became 2,000 on the following day, then 3,000, then 4,000, then 5,000, and on the day on which we received 5,000 letters there were also 1,200 callers at the Office. Every letter and every visitor brought proposals of help in one form or another. Within a fortnight we had at our disposal hospitality for 100,000 persons. Cheques, clothing, food, offers of personal service flowed in upon us. I could spend hours rather than minutes in telling you the details of that first outpouring of public generosity. The sense of the country was made absolutely clear that if it could not share the acute suffering caused to the people of Belgium by the war it desired to diminish that suffering by every means that it possessed. These offers came not from one class nor from one place, but from all classes and from all places. Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Nonconformist, high and low, rich and poor united, all unaware, in a spontaneous tribute of sympathy and respect. Nations, like individuals, have their moments of unconscious self-revelation. It was a moment which unmistakably revealed the heart of England.

The enthusiasm and volume of the movement were cheering, and no offers touched us more deeply than the hundreds we received, often on postcards, from the very poor. But the suddenness of the movement brought with it accompaniments which it must be admitted were difficult to cope with. We were soon accused, and justly accused, of not answering our letters, of not acknowledging our cheques, of not receiving our visitors with due consideration. It was all true! though it remained so only for a few days. To have done otherwise was a physical impossibility, for what were we among so many? We were only a willing company of amateurs suddenly called upon to deal with the conditions of a large business created in twenty-four hours. And while this volume of external business was pouring in the true object of our existence remained in our opinion the providing of homes for our coming guests. We contented ourselves with safeguarding our cheques, and gave our thoughts to the refugees.

They began to come on the first day. They increased in numbers, not being immediately brought in ship-loads, but trickling through on their own account from various sources to the number of perhaps 100 or 150 a day. Our first difficulty with regard to finding homes for them was met by the kindness of Sir James Dunlop-Smith, who obtained from the India Office permission to place at our disposal a small house at 49, St. George’s Road, usually occupied by the King’s orderlies, but standing at the moment empty and furnished. This was the first place of refuge offered in this country to Belgians. It seemed to us a suitable coincidence that it should come, even indirectly, from the King. The Borough Council of Camberwell was, if my memory serves me rightly, the next to offer us beds for Belgian refugees. They had organized Dulwich Baths as a hospital, and they placed at our disposal between 80 and 100 beds. Battersea followed their example. Private offers were added to these, and in two or three days we had a couple of hundred beds upon which we could count.

We reached the third day of our existence before any news came of the ship-load of refugees for whose reception the Committee had been so hastily organized. It was on Wednesday evening at about half-past seven o’clock, as we were separating after a heavy day’s work, that a telegram was brought in saying, “One thousand refugees arriving Folkestone to-night. Can you take 500 in London tomorrow?” The moment had come. We afterwards discovered that this was not “the” ship, and as a matter of fact Mr. Wintour’s refugees never did come over in a special transport chartered for them. I give you our impressions, however, only as we received them then. We had provided with the greatest difficulty for 250. To provide suddenly for 500 more seemed at first sight impossible. But to let you have one instance of the early work I will describe how it was done.

Among the offers which had been made to us was one from the Army and Navy Stores proposing to lend us an empty shirt factory conveniently situated just opposite Victoria Station. It was in a perfectly sanitary condition, clean, with gas, light, and water laid on, but stark empty. At eight o’clock on Wednesday evening we accepted the offer. Mrs. Walter Cave took direction in this particular act of energy, and I believe she was up all that night. The Army and Navy Stores let us have beds at cost price. The Chairman of the Rowton Houses lent us crockery and linen. Willing help came from every side, and the result was achieved that before three on the following afternoon the shirt factory had been converted into a hostel, where 250 beds were made up with clean sheets and pillow-cases; a kitchen was arranged downstairs with eight cooking-stoves; dining-tables were ready laid; and a hot dinner for several hundred people awaited the arrival of the refugees. Our first batch of 250 arrived there that afternoon. We disposed of the others in different places, and from that day, though we continued to receive refugees in London at the rate of several hundreds per day, and were often at our wits’ end what to do, not one who reached our hands was ever left without food and lodging.

The experience of this first week gave us the formation of the principal Departments of the War Refugees Committee. I do not propose now to detain you with any full description of our organization. For anyone who is interested the details are recorded in the Blue-Book issued by the Departmental Committee of the Local Government Board appointed to consider and report on questions arising in connection with the Reception and Employment of the Belgian Refugees in this country. I will indicate merely the framework of the machine which circumstances immediately brought into operation.

LADY LUGARD’S HOSTELS FOR BELGIAN REFUGEES.

_Committee_—_Lady Lugard._ _The Hon. Mrs. Roland Leigh._ _Stuart Hogg, Esq._

These Hostels have been instituted by Lady Lugard for the reception of Belgians who have hitherto lived on their private means but have come to the end of their resources. Also for some of a poorer class who have received hospitality offered for a definite period which has now come to an end.

There are at present eleven houses, accommodating a total of about 400 people. Two of these are more in the nature of hospitals, the rest are carried on like private hotels or boarding-houses. Care is taken to make the life as pleasant as possible. Guests are placed in the different houses according to their social rank; there is a capable manageress in every house, a Belgian cook, and to a large extent the other servants are Belgian.

In many cases, where the refugees have some small means of their own, it has been found desirable to assist in payment of the rent of flats, or by direct contributions. At present 125 are helped in these ways.

Lady Lugard’s aim has been to make each house a “little corner of Belgium,” as one of the guests happily expressed it. There is a committee of ladies, who visit these houses regularly and see that the inmates are as happy and comfortable as possible.

All expenditure is accounted for to the Central Committee, and care is taken that there is no waste.

The scheme has a certain amount of financial help from the War Refugees Committee, but all expenses of furnishing, rent, lighting, and general upkeep are borne by Lady Lugard’s Committee.

Your help is asked to carry on this undertaking, which is one of the attempts to repay a small portion of the immense debt we owe to the unhappy Belgian nation.

Cheques and postal orders should be made out to Lady Lugard, and addressed to her at

51, RUTLAND GATE, S.W.

Our first need was obviously a Card Index and Correspondence Department. This Department has since been placed under the very efficient management of Mr. Arthur Chadwick, assisted by Mr. Berks and Mr. Barsdorf, and with the Cashier’s Department under our excellent cashier, Mr. Bourne, has completely rescued us from the reproaches of the first days.

We needed a Transport Department to meet refugees at the stations to convey them to and from the Refuges. We were helped at first by Mr. F. M. Guedalla, who also did yeoman service with Mr. Basil Williams and others in the reception of the refugees at Folkestone. By the kindness of Sir Albert Stanley and the London General Omnibus Company the services of one of the officers of that Company, Mr. Henry Campbell, were placed at our disposal, and under Mr. Campbell this Department has become one of the most important and efficient branches of our practical organization. Mr. Campbell’s grip and comprehension of the work of the War Refugees Committee is so complete that I believe if the whole Committee were swept away and Mr. Campbell were left standing, the work would still be satisfactorily carried on.

Our next obvious need was an organized system of fitting the refugees into the offers of hospitality which were received for them. This has remained from the beginning the most complicated and difficult work we have had to do. A Department, afterwards known as our Allocation Department, was organized at once under Lady Gladstone, Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, and Mrs. Gilbert Samuel, who have been assisted in the work by an army of willing volunteers. The work of this Department, of which a beginning had been made in the Belgian Consulate even before the War Refugees Committee came into existence, has since been carried on in four main divisions. There has been our Central Allocation Department, of which the direction has remainded in the hands of Mrs. Gilbert Samuel. There has been a very important development of subsidiary branches in the Rink under Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, helped of course by many willing workers, to all of whom she would, I am sure, wish to offer a tribute of gratitude. There has been the Allocation of the Belgian Consulate, also carried on at Aldwych, under the direction of the Misses Rothschild and a group of helpers, and there has been the Allocation of the Catholic Women’s League, under the direction of Miss Streeter, working always in co-operation with Aldwych, but carried on from their own headquarters in Victoria Street. In addition to these there has been also the Allocation, carried on independently of Aldwych, by the Jewish community, who from their own private offers have provided for upwards of 6,000 people. The Catholic ladies have allocated upwards of 6,000. In the Miss Rothschild’s room at Aldwych some 30,000 have been either allocated or helped in other ways. Our own two branches of Allocation have since the beginning of the movement arranged for the placing of between 50,000 and 60,000 persons. In all its branches the War Refugees Committee has found homes for about 100,000 persons.

A Department taking its rise in the same necessities as the Allocation Department proper is the Department of Local Committees, which early in the movement formed themselves throughout the country for the better management of local offers of hospitality, while working in correspondence with Aldwych. This Department at Aldwych has been from the beginning under the supervision of Lord Lytton, who has directed it with an ability and devotion for which the War Refugees Committee have every reason to be grateful. The number of Local Committees with which his Department maintains touch is now nearly 2,000.

To these Departments one other of great importance was added in the first days. It was our Clothing Department, with headquarters at 23, Warwick Square. Here Lady Emmott, ably assisted by Lady MacDonnell and other devoted ladies, has been enabled by the generosity of the public to distribute nearly a million garments, including much-needed boots and shoes.

The creation of our different Departments was, as I have said, immediately imposed upon us by the conditions of the problem with which we were dealing. The general work of direction and coordination, and the creation of new means of meeting each new necessity of the situation had also to grow from the simple beginnings of the early days. It was soon found that it was desirable to place the Management under one direction, and it was decided to ask Lord Gladstone, who was prepared to give the time and devotion necessary to such a work, to accept a position which is, I suppose, equivalent to that usually held in a commercial company by the Managing Director. Mr. Morgan was at first associated in this direction, but found himself afterwards unable to devote the necessary time, and Lord Gladstone has from the beginning borne the brunt of the central work of the Committee. It is only in a later chapter, to which I shall have occasion to refer, that he has been assisted in a Management Committee by Lord Lytton, the Rt. Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., and Mr. A. Allen, M.P., to whom was added in the capacity of Honorary Secretary Mr. A. Maudslay, who has been from the beginning one of the most constant and devoted of our voluntary workers. I should mention here that Mr. Maudslay was among the most active of Mrs. Lyttelton’s helpers in the first organization of the Rink, and that at a later period he succeeded our first Secretary, Mr. Hennessy Cook, as Honorary Secretary to the War Refugees Committee. Lord Gladstone’s position has been no sinecure, and we all, if I may be permitted to say it, give ungrudging recognition to the absolute sincerity and unselfishness of purpose with which he has performed his work. We do not claim as a Committee—and I am sure Lord Gladstone would heartily agree with me—to have been perfectly organized or perfectly directed, or that our staff, amounting at one time to upwards of 500 devoted volunteers, have always perfectly understood or perfectly carried out the intentions and instructions of headquarters. We are willing to accept in a chastened spirit all reasonable criticism. The only claim we are concerned to make is that the War Refugees Committee throughout has been a willing instrument. In ourselves we have been nothing. The power by which we have been worked has been the country. We are proud only to have been privileged to represent a movement which may claim to take its place in history as the consolation of a nation by a nation.