TO CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
LATE SECRETARY'S LETTER.
20
The Ypres Times
in 191S the one place that held on was Ypres. The Ypres salient did not give way. People said they
ought to withdraw, but behind the whole thing there was sentiment, and the Commanders in the salient
said The salient has not been pierced, and we will hold on to the bitter end." (Applause.)
In reply, Major Ramsdale said the League had had a very difficult period to go through. Towards
the end of last year they found themselves in tremendous difficulties, financially, socially, with the
police, with the Government, with everybody. (Laughter.) He had the honour at that time to be
one of the malcontents, but he realised it was no good going to headquarters without some constructive
policy. From last December onwards they fought desperately, but now he could tell them that there
was nothing to be afraid of. To-day they were flourishing in a way which the Ypres League had never
known before.
Our Guests was proposed by Major R. W. Fyffe and replied to by Dr. McGrath, while the toast
of Absent Friends" was proposed by the Chaplain (the Rev. A. E. Duckett).
The response to the appeal made for individual effort has been magnificent. It is proposed to keep
the League fire burning in every part of the world through those who have expressed a desire to give
their support, not by the sometimes slow and laborious machinery of a branch office, but by the vital
energy of keen individuals. To such we look for help on the lines laid down by headquarters.
A special roll of corresponding members has been printed which will vary in every issue as new
ones offer their services. Naturally many of the original corresponding members will, through various
reasons, drop out from time to time. The duties are elastic. We desire, not rigidity, but expansion.
Our earnest wish is to increase our membership so that we may be in a position to increase our power
for good. Very gradually we have made preparation for great and varied efforts for the new year.
Coincident with the "incorporation of the Ypres League, branches as such have ceased to exist.
These have now become groups of members knit together by the same ideals. Many branch secretaries
have come in whole-heartedly as corresponding members, the whole or part of their committees serving
with them as before. The League will now consist of groups in every important district or town in
the world, wherever a corresponding member will come forward and declare his intention of holding
them together by his personal influence, he himself being in direct communication with headquarters.
London has been very successfully worked by a new body composed of associates called the London
County Committee. It has been decided to keep intact the old branch machinery in the Sheffield and
Liverpool branches, which will henceforward be known as the Yorkshire and Lancashire groups with
their own organisation slightly modified to conform to our new policy.
I regret "that I have to leave the League at a time when support has been so generously given me
as your Secretary, and when the good name of the League has never stood so high. On every side
there are striking proofs of the great comfort received by many from opportunities wisely used to this
end. This alone is no inconsiderable achievement. I trust that the new Secretary, Major B. S.
Browne, may reap the same reward of happiness which I have done in my close and sympathetic associa
tion with the brave men and women who prefer to remember heroic deeds even at the expense of keeping
open their own heart-wounds.
Incorporation means that the League having weathered the period of probation has been
accepted by the Board of Trade as a corporate body of Associates and Members. This added dignity
imposing as it does greater responsibilities is a necessary step in our progress towards increasing efforts.
Your Committee at Headquarters having complete confidence in the value of our aims and objects,
unaltered since the League's foundation, are determined to stay at Ypres.
To this valedictory letter of Col. Brierley's I venture to add this postscript which will allay alarm
and despondency. Col. Brierley is only going as far as the War Office, Whitehall, and it is quite certain
that his sympathy, his initiative and much of his leisure time will be given by him, just as before, to
the interests of the League and of its individual members.
E. B. WAGGETT,
Vice-ChairmanEx. Com.
