LEAGUE SECRETARY'S NOTES.
I
The Ypres Times. ]07
TO OUR NEW MEMBERS.
We heartily welcome our new members who
have joined the League since the publication of
the July number of The Ypres Times.
We wish to thank you for the way in which
you have come to our aid during a difficult
financial period as a result of the strikes, and we
express much gratitude for your loyal support in
recruiting additional members.
During the past quarter, we have received
great encouragement by members calling person
ally at Headquarters. It has always been a
difficult problem to get in personal touch with
our members, so we hope you will call whenever
you are in London and can spare the time, and
give us the pleasure of making your acquaint
ance.
Remember to promote the League's objects,
and so keep alive the memory of those who so
gallantly sacrificed their lives for us in defending
Ypres.
Be sure always to have a few membership
forms by you, so as not to lose a single opportu
nity to increase the strength of the League.
Membership of the League is open to all who
served in the Salient, to all those whose relatives
or friends died there, and to those who are in
sympathy with our objects. A Junior Division
has been established for boys and girls, annual
subscription one shilling, up to the age of 18,
after which they can become ordinary members of
the League. We feel it is essential that the
young generation should learn to realise what
the War meant, and to mention the purpose
for which so many thousands of British troops
fought and died.
We are confident of your able support.
TO BRANCH SECRETARIES AND
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
When I last had the pleasure of writing my
quarterly letter, we were in the throes of what
at the time appeared to be strangling difficulties,
due to a national situation, whose effects were
prolonged and widespread. We were forced, as
you will doubtless recollect, to appeal to our
readers for funds to help us to meet the expenses
incidental to the publication of The Ypres Times.
Our S.O.S. met with a quick and generous
response, and I am happy to be in a position to
report also that subscriptions and donations
have been coming in steadily during the past
three months. A fair number of new, and the
continued recovery of lapsed members justify us in
indulging in a spirit of optimism as regards the
future of the League, the outlook of which at the
moment is both cheerful and encouraging.
Contrary to expectations, the railway com
panies offered every facility for cheap travel
during the holiday season, and we were, therefore,
able to organise a successful pilgrimage to Ypres
which left London on July 31st and returned
August 3rd. An account will be found on page
104.
Independent travel also received an impetus
from the improved train service inaugurated,
and considerable activity was maintained in our
travel bureau during the months of August and
September. In this connection it may be of
interest to note that we arranged a certain
number of four-day trips to Amiens (Somme),
which bids fair to rival Ypres in popularity. A
member, who, with several friends, visited Amiens
lately, writes I am writing to thank the
League for the arrangements made for our
comfort on our four-days' trip to Amiens. The
accommodation provided for us at the Hotel du
Commerce was really first-class. For motor
transport we went to Captain Stuart Oswald,
M.C., who advertises in The Ypres Times, and
for a moderate charge he took us in his comfort
able car for a day's tour which comprised Albert,
La Boiselle, Contalmaison, Bazentin, Longueval,
Delville Wood, High Wood, Pozières, Courcelette,
Thiepval, Authnille and Aveluy. We recommend
to your readers the League's four-day trip to
Amiens."
The League has recently compiled a pamphlet
entitled South Africa in Delville Wood and
Ypres Salient" on similar lines to its predecessor,
Canada in the Ypres Salient," which appeared
earlier in the year. This pamphlet will be dis
tributed among the many South Africans who
are visiting England en route for Delville Wood,
for the unveiling ceremony of the South African
War Memorial in October, and it is hoped thereby
to make our association more widely known in
the Dominion.
We have renewed the lease of our present
offices for another year. We have already reaped
the advantage of having headquarters in a central
position. Chance visitors who drop in to make
enquiries and buy literature very often depart
as members. We have also greater opportunities
of helping the unemployed ex-service man with
advice, and of putting him in touch with the
proper societies to assist him, thus fulfilling in
one of its many aspects the League's object of
fellowship.
We have been fortunate in forming a Branch
of the League at Gateshead, of which Lt. Col.
E. G. Crouch, D.S.O., D.C.M., is Chairman, and
Captain J. A. C. Scott, M.C., Secretary. This
branch, although only inaugurated last August,
has recruited a considerable number of new
members. We wish it further success.
In concluding this short summary of our quar
ter's work, I desire to express our grateful thanks
'for your continued co-operation, and support,
on which is based no small portion of the League's
achievement.
