Our "Campaign Comforts" Fund.
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Already 5000 Drivers and Relief Drivers to be Aided. Formation of a Ladies Committee. Excellent Cash and General Progress.
Renewed Appeal for Help at Works and Depots Concerned with the Manufacture or Use of Commercial Motors.
The expectation that our "Campaign Comforts" Fund would this week reach £250 has been fulfilled. It did not seem a long way to that sum when we went to press with the issue of the 29th ult., and the accompanying list of cash donations, which is complete to Monday afternoon last., shows that our anticipations have been quickly fulfilled. More money, of course, can be spent usefully, and we confidently appeal to our friends in the commercial-motor world at large to give outward expression through our fund to their sympathy with the men with the wagons. There is no hurry. There is plenty of time to decide how such support can be arranged, and to ponder the programme wherever consideration and discussion are necessary. Notices in works and depots which serve any of the branches of the heavy-motor industry appeal to us as a likely method from which to look for assistance, although we know it will in the majority of eases involve a slight rearrangement of the appropriations that were previously contemplated. The past in matters of this kind must not determine the future, and for that reason our Fund may properly claim attention, and thereafter a share of such weekly c.oidlect,ions.
Official Help: 5000 Drivers Already,
We have taken all necessary steps to assure ourselves of the necessary facilities for despatching parcels and packages of goods to the men with the wagons— not excepting the motor omnibuses and the tractors. Brigadier-General S. S. Long, A.S.C., who is now director at, the War Office both of transport and supply, has personally given us all the necessary information, and has kindly volunteered a great deal more in the way of hints and suggestions. This readiness on the Dart of one of the hardest-worked. men at the War Office is highly appreciated. We have ascertained from General Long, for example, that we have at the moment to provide comforts for not fewer than 5000 aetive drivers with the heavy vehicles and tractors. There are already upwards of 10.500 men with the Mechanical Transport Supply Columns in the area of hostilities, but it is the men who are actually driving, or who are told off to drive turn and turn about, to whom we shall first of all devote the proceeds of our efforts. It will be realized that two shifts of drivers for some 2500 heavy vehicles yield a. total in round figures oC 5000 men, all entrusted with the duty of driving in rotation throughout the campaign. This number will increase every month as more divisions gä out.
Gloves First.
The foregoing summary of the strength of the M.T. me idea of the magnitude
columns will convey so of
the task which we have accepted, and will justify our appeal for additional awsistance. To send out suitable gloves for the 5000 drivers who at present want 5 them will alone cost £500, even at the low wholesale price, of 2s. a pair. We have at. the moment got only half enough money for that one purpose, but we intend, throughout the coming winter., to keep " plugging away" at our Fund and our friends, confident in the belief that a. total of £500 for it will before long be an -event of the past. Many of the men, of 'course, have gloves of their own, 'arid we shall rely upon the commanding officers to distribute those which we send to the drivers who are most in need or new ones. It is possible, none the less, that a round sum of £250 may well ha spent on gloves by us, and so spent in the course of the next few weeks.
The Ladies CoMmittee.
Mrs.. Shrapne1I-Smith has kindly formed a committee of ladies to act with her in regard to the choice and purchase of suitable material and articles upon which neither the Editor nor any member of his staff can claim to be an authority. Herself a. daughter of the late Major-General B. Temple Gochnan, who at the time of his death in December, 1912, was Colonelin-Chief of the 5th Dragoon Guards, she now has the advantage of the co-operation of Mrs. S. S. Long, the wife of the Director-General at the War Office of Transport and Supplies, of Mrs. W. E. Donohue, the wife of the Chief Inspector of Mechanical Transport, and of Mrs. 11., K. Bagnall-Wild, the wife of an officer of the Royal Engineers who is well known to many of our readers, and who is now chief inspector of aircraft engines on the maintenance side of the Royal Flying Corps. It is, of course, apropos the assistance of Mrs. Bagnall-Wild, very important that drivers of the motor lorries of the aviation type should not be forgotten.
We have also to acknowledge a kind offer from Major-General F. Lorn Campbell, at one time in command of the Scots Guards, and now Director of Recruiting at the War Office, which comes through the ladies committee, of an unoccupied flat in Jermyn Street for sorting and packing use. We believe, however, that we shall not require to avail ourselves cf this offer, as we have at the moment the necessary space at our disposal in Rosebery Avenue for the reception and handling of gifts in kind, and the packing ready for despatch of the parcels which will shortly be made up. We are none the less ready to note further offers of the kind.
Contributions in Kind.
The largest contribution in kind comes from the Herbert Frood Co., Ltd., of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Mr. Herbert Frood, in a characteristic letter, rtfornises us a minimum of 50 gross of matches in tin-lined cases,' ready for despatch to the columns.
We have additional promises of active help from a number of ladies, and lists of their gifts will be held pending the completion of the earlier batches of articles, such as socks, helmets, body belts, comforters, etc.
Mrs. Shrapnell-Smith, whose address is Sheerwater Cottage, West Byfleet, Surrey, will be pleased to send. direct to any applicant, a pattern and directions for the making of submarine-type gloves. A specimen pair is already in the possession of one of the members of the Editorial staff of THE C OMMIIRC IA L MOTOR who is at the Front, and from whom we have already received so many highly-interesting despatches. Their suitability for cold-weather use, however, is assured by other reports, to which we have been given access, coining from officers and men in the Navy.
Not a Formal Fund.
We hope that many users in the country, and also the drivers in their service, will realize the fact that this "Campaign Comforts" Fund is not formal in character, but one which should make a very personal appeal to them. It should not be viewed in a spirit of detachment, but rather in one of close attachment and deep concern. Men with common eacupations and interests are to be benefited, and the long, dreary months of the coming winter are to be relieved, during unusual spells of work, by owners and drivers at home who are enjoying easier conditions in part by reason of the services which these men with the wagons are rendering.
We appeal most earnestly for help from works and depots which are connected with commercial motoring in any of its numerous branches. Three shillings a week each from 100 works will amount in three months to £195! Why should not that number of works and depots raise such a reasonable yet welcome 8.MIL during the next three months ? We again throw out the suggestion that such funds should be started, and we designedly mention a small weekly yield from each in order to show that every little will help. To quote an old Scottish saying, "Every mickle mak'sa muckle." Our Fund will not be stopped in three months from now, for we shall then only find ourselves at the beginning of February, and there will still be another two months of cold weather before the men with the wagons. There are, we know, not a few works and depots in the country which may hope to average as many pounds a week as we have mentioned shillings.