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The Ypres Times.
hand to whose who suffered at Ypres and "to help lame dogs over stiles." Our Secretary
is of the helping class and he is never happier than when giving advice and writing letters
to members needing assistance about pension appeals and so forth. The more time he
can devote to this side of the League the better he is pleased.
The League is composed of thousands of men and women who want to give something
in honour of Ypres and the defence. If you attempt to find out by means of a plebiscite
which object is to be undertaken to-day and which is to be put off till to-morrow, you
will never get anything done. All the different objects of the League are more or less
approved of by every memberotherwise he would not have joined up. The working
of such a League as ours must be left to a governing body which alone can know the exact
circumstances of the moment. Take as an example the question of those demarcation
stones mentioned some lines back. Supposing we had taken a vote by plebiscite about
the desirability of spending money upon themit is quite likely that the majority of
votes would have been cast against the scheme. I happen to know that if the Committee
had not accepted the money for that particular object and at that particular moment,
the funds from which it came would have gone to other Institutions.
You have to rely upon Executive Officers if you want things accomplished, and
they must be formed into a Committee, and the Committee must consist of people who
are keen to give time and energy for the League, and who have, moreover, the faculty of
getting things done and not merely the desire of talking about them. The original
Committee of our League, as of all institutions, is composed of such energetic people.
The time always arrives, and we think has now arrived in our League, for adding to that
Committee representatives of the main body of members. The Ypres League as described
in the Articles of Association which constitute it a Limited Liability Company capable,
in the legal sense, of conducting business, is composed of two hundred and fifty persons
(the numbers can be increased later) with a limited liability of £1 each in case of financial
failure these form the governing body from which is elected a general committee of
not unwieldy size, which appoints a Working Executive Committeeboth of the
Committees reporting to the Association at least once a year.
This Association should by rights have been incorporated last December and the
business must be finished now and quickly. Probably it will be composed in the first
place of about 50 people who have taken a good deal of trouble in starting the League.
To it must also belong representatives of our 50 branches. There will remain room in
it for certain friends of the League who have loyally helped it by their service, and also
for others who have been anxious to join up and help but who have held off hitherto
because they were not quite sure about the business capacities of the League. One cannot
have the privilege of forming part of the governing body of a great institution without
paying for itand our financial advisers consider that each associate member should
contribute a donation in return for that privilege. Branches will make their own arrange
ments, but presumably the contributions of the Branch representatives will come from
the funds of the Branches concerned.
It need not be imagined that this will turn the Association into a rich man's affair.
On the contrary, I believe, that it is the general opinion of the existing Committee that
what is wanted is a large representation of men who did the fighting in the trenches'Jhd
gun emplacements. True, it is easier for a rich man to contribute a few guineas than
for a poor one to do so, but there is no sort of reason why the least well-off member should
not get himself selected by a body of his friends combined to contribute the necessary
sum in order to secure a direct representation on the governing body. If such a repre
sentative proves his capacity he can secure by election a place on the Executive Committee.
The above suggestion has not yet been discussed in Committee.
If this scheme is adopted it will I believe make the League even more than now into
a real, live, growing concern, active for good. In the past too much has been thrown
upon a few willing shoulders, with the consequence that some of us have had to attempt
