The Junior Division.
A PROVISION FOR CONTINUITY.
102
The Ypres Times.
The Junior Division of the League is now in being and its membership roll is steadily
growing. The response to the preliminary announcement in our last issue has been
gratifying, but much remains to be done before the Junior Division becomes that living,
virile force we intend to make it, and to this end we ask the help of every member of the
League. Let us once again put forward the case for the Junior Division, and if you
have our great ideals at heart we think you will see it is your duty to help us.
In the relentless march of time, the founders and original members of the League will
become casualties, and unless we see to it now we shall leave none behind us to carry on
our ideal of remembrance and that wonderful spirit of comradeship which is such a
prominent feature of the League. It is only through our children that continuity can be
achieved.
If you have attended any of the gatherings of the League you have probably noticed
the great outstanding feature, the one we are all aiming atComradeship. Between
officers of the highest rank and the humblest ex-privates there is a bond of common sendee
to their country, of common trial in which neither was found wantingand perhaps to
an even greater degree there is a bond between those who have suffered a common loss.
We do not mean to let such bonds slacken, rather, we are going to strengthen them, so
that as we fall out our places will be taken by the rising generation, by the children of
the men and the women who served their country in the immortal Salient.
Let there be no mistake, we are not asking a favour, we are offering a distinction,
and one of which the highest may justly be proud. To this day the descendants of the
men who fought at Waterloo, Trafalgar, Lucknow, and other epoch-making crises of our
battle-scarred existence as an Empire, meet regularly in remembrance, and it is only fitting
that the far greater number of those springing from the men who fought at Ypres should
meet likewise, united as were their fathers in that wonderful team-work that saved the
Empire. Field Marshals Earl Ypres and Lord Plumer both urged this point strongly
at the recent Grosvenor House Re-union, and we ask you to give to their judgment and
their appreciation of the position the same weight as was given by those who had the
privilege of serving under them in the field.
We can do much for the children if you will assist us, we might almost say, if you will
permit us. We can arrange for gatherings at which all will be represented and where we
hope they can assimilate something of that camaraderie which distinguished their fathers
and which is so vital to the interests of the nation at large. We already offer substantial
prizes for essays and other forms of competition, and many other schemes and ideas for the
betterment and amusement of the children of the League are under consideration. We
cannot, however, move in these matters until we have a largely increased membership of the
Junior Division, and that is the objective now before us.
The essential conditions are that children shall be the lineal descendants of men or
women who served in the Ypres Salient, and to all such, on joining, a certificate of member
ship will be given. The extreme age limit is 18 (our youngest member was three weeks
when he joined) and the other condition is the rather nominal subscription of is. per
annum. Is it not worth this and the trouble of writing a letter to give to your child his
or her inalienable right of becoming a member of a League to which it is a privilege to
belong The children will thank you for it when they are old enough to understand
its true significance.
