in the Orange Free State, so that it is doubtful how far General Hertzog can rely on their support in Parliament.

Both Mr Creswell and Mr Andrews lost their seats; and the circumstances of the moment made it impossible to arrange the expected working agreement between the Nationalists and the Labour Party. The coloured electorate in Cape Colony supported the Government, for to them the conquest of the German Protectorate implied the liberation of the local natives from a tyranny. With the exception of one seat at Bloemfontein, General Hertzog swept the board in his own province, though some of his majorities were small. The Unionists lost ground to the South African Party in the province of Natal; and Mr Merriman has strengthened his position in the South African Party by winning a wonderful victory at Stellenbosch, which is the intellectual centre of the Africander propaganda.

These results have enabled the Government to continue in office, although in fact they have not a majority over all parties combined. The South African Party is a centre block; and neither Unionists nor Nationalists dare turn out the Government, as there is no other organisation which can give South Africa the stable government it requires.

The problems which face the Union are very different from those facing a European community. The Native question must be solved; the whole commercial organisation of South Africa depends for its existence on European markets; and before another election takes place there must be a solution of three grave external problems, viz. (1) the government of the Protectorate of German SouthWest Africa, (2) the relations with Rhodesia, and (3) the renewal of the Mozambique Convention concerning Delagoa Bay, which expires in 1919. The Imperial Government has promised that South Africa shall be consulted on all these problems; and the result of the recent elections will ensure for Pretoria a powerful voice in their settlement.

R. C. HAWKIN.

Art. 7.-WAR RELIEF AND WAR SERVICE.

1. Memorandum on the steps taken for the Prevention and Relief of Distress due to the War, 1914. [Cd. 7603.] Wyman, 1915.

2. Report of the Administration of the Relief Fund up to 31st March, 1915. [Cd. 7756.] Wyman, 1915.

3. Interim Report of the Central Committee on Women's Employment. [Cd. 7848.] Wyman, 1915.

4. Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories. Chap. IV, 'Women and Girls in Industry,' by Miss Anderson, H.M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories. Wyman, 1915.

5. Proceedings of Conference on War Relief and Personal Saving. London, June 10, 11, 12, 1915.

6. War Distress and War Help. A short catalogue of the leading War Help Societies. By Helen Donald Smith. Murray, 1915.

IN August 1914 the mobilisation of the Fleet and the Army were accompanied by the almost equally rapid voluntary mobilisation of the civil population, intent on doing, and doing promptly, what in them lay to help the nation successfully through the tremendous struggle which lay before it. The practical sense of the nation at large realised at once when the war broke out that the country was involved in the greatest struggle known in its history-a life-and-death grapple with the greatest military power in the world. Faced by this tremendous task, every man and woman in this country asked the question, 'What can I do?' The young men answered in millions by joining the army and navy. Doctors, both men and women, answered by serving in war hospitals and field ambulances. Nurses, of course, had an equally ready answer. Young men on their way to training and doctors and nurses, were among the comparacamps, tively small number of people who at the beginning of the war looked happy and satisfied, because they had found an obvious and certain way of helping their country through its great struggle. But the mass of men over military age, the women who were neither doctors nor nurses-what could they do? The answer

to this question quickly narrowed itself down to 'money or personal service, or both.'

The way in which this call to help the country was answered covers an immense field of activity. It will be impossible here to give anything like a complete survey of it. Only a few of the chief points can be indicated. The number of societies founded for the express purpose of doing war work is immense; and to them must be added societies of old standing which have either suspended their ordinary work or diverted it into new channels in order to help war distress or render war service. Miss Donald Smith's little book, giving names and addresses of societies of both types, enumerates 147 societies; but omissions will be readily detected by almost anyone who has had practical experience of war-relief work. This criticism detracts little from the value of Miss Donald Smith's compilation. A new edition of such a list would be needed at least once a month if it is to keep pace with the facts.

The first place in any account of War Relief must be given to the National Relief Fund founded by the Prince of Wales. War was declared at midnight on Aug. 4 and this fund was opened on Aug. 6. The co-operation of Lord Mayors, Mayors, and Chairmen of County Councils and Urban District Councils was invited; and they were requested to form Local Representative Committees to deal with the prevention and relief of distress owing to the war. The fund rapidly grew to very large proportions. It is probably the largest ever raised by voluntary contributions. In November 1915 it amounted to 5,615,9057., of which a little less than half (2,673,0007.) had been allocated to various objects.

On Aug. 4, 1914, a letter was addressed by the Local Government Board to the Central (Unemployed) Body for London, asking, in view of the probability of serious lack of employment and dislocation of trade in consequence of the war, that schemes of work should be formulated for dealing with such an emergency. The result proved, however, that the distress among the general population was much less than had at first been feared. The absorption of large numbers of men in the new army partly accounted for this; and the demand on the part of the Government and the Governments of

our Allies for clothing and military stores of all kinds caused abnormal activity in many trades, calling for a corresponding demand for labour. Unemployment among men was quickly reduced to a very low figure. There was never any need for the opening of relief work for men; but for a time there was acute distress among women, especially those who had been employed in the luxury trades. The closing of the Stock Exchange also threw a large number of typists and shorthand writers (mainly women) out of work. Many such women, continually living as they did below the poverty line, were desperately hard hit by the war.

In September and October 1914, while the percentage of unemployed men registered at the Labour Exchanges was relatively small, the percentage of unemployed women was four times as great as usual. Gradually, however, the prospect for these women also brightened. The Queen opened her Work for Women Fund; and a committee was formed to administer it, to deal with the problem of the displacement of women's labour, and to devise schemes for its relief. The greatest and most widely reaching relief came, however, from another source the placing of army orders in various trades on a quite unprecedented scale. Government orders for socks, shirts, boots, the production of cloth, the making of uniforms by the million, the packing of army stores, the production of munitions, caused an immense new demand for labour from both men and women, with the result that unemployment caused by the war was wiped out with comparative rapidity by new employment, also caused by the war. The manufacturing districts of England were worked to their fullest extent in supplying the needs not only of our own army but also of the armies of our Allies; for instance, it has recently been stated that the Allied Governments had placed orders in the textile districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire for 43,000,000 yards of cloth.

We do not overlook the fact that the ultimate economic result of this war expenditure tends to destruction of wealth rather than its production; but for the moment the problem of unemployment ceased to exist. In September 1915, after fourteen months of war, the rate of unemployment registered at Labour Exchanges Vol. 225.-No. 446.

I

was only per cent., the lowest on record. Throughout the year it fell continuously. There was a set-off against this, so far as the prosperity of the working classes was concerned, of a rise in prices; but it was computed that the sum paid in wages had risen by the end of July 1915 by 369,6351. weekly, and by the end of October by 519,4847.* At the outset of the war this had not been foreseen; and almost every one anticipated more widely extended and far more severe economic distress than was actually experienced. It was to deal with this expected distress that the National Relief Fund was opened, and a large amount of private effort was also made.

The main principles of War Relief laid down by the Committees of the National Relief Fund and the Queen's Work for Women Fund were sound, and had valuable educational influence on private work of the same kind. The National Relief Fund made grants solely through the Local Representative Committees; the Central Committee on Women's Employment 'adopted the rule that the organisation and management of special relief workrooms must be vested in a special sub-committee known as the Women's Employment Sub-committee of the Local Representative Committee.'t It is not surprising that this rule caused some disappointment to the promoters of many private charities who hoped to receive grants. But some rule of this kind was necessary in order to prevent the absorption of the fund by schemes which would have had the effect of retarding rather than promoting the adaptation of the industrial population to the new industrial conditions. It was not desirable to keep masses of working women engaged in relief workrooms on bare subsistence wages and very often under amateur, and consequently wasteful, management, when there was a large new demand growing up, capable of absorbing all the labour displaced by the war. As temporary expedients, these privately managed workrooms fulfilled a useful purpose; and the devotion and personal services offered by their organisers were often beyond all praise. Those which were best managed were

Board of Trade and Labour Gazette,' July to November, 1915.

† P. 9, par. 19, Interim Report of the Central Committee on Women's Employment, 1915.'