Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

in all its freshness and vigour during the quiet years of peace which we look forward to, it will be a great guarantee that all schemes of social development and of legislation, as well as individual hopes of progress and advancement will be subordinated to the idea of national well-being and will strive con- tinually towards that end.. This, then, is really the principal object of the association which has been formed, and the one which will make most largely for the good of the country, but its more temporary object of securing the individual welfare of our soldiers and sailors is one of which the importance must not be lost sight of. The Comrades will help a man in every way after his discharge. It will see that blundering or red tape do not deprive him of his pension or of the full benefit to which he is entitled. It will help him to find work. It will inaugurate or assist schemes of housing and of social progress which will make for his health and prosperity. It will help alike the man who has been crippled in the service of his country and the man who has had the good fortune to return sound and whole to take up the work which he left at the call of honour. It will also concern itself with the widows and children of those who will never return, and who found their last resting place amidst the tumult of the battle, leaving the welfare of those for whom they cared as"a trust"to the country in whose services they died. To carry out these objects with any degree of success it is essential to have a large organisation with a perfect system of co-operation running through it. The "Comrades of the Great War" is to be directed from Central Headquarters in London, and from there will work through four national Headquarters controlling the four nations of the United Kingdom. These will descend through Divisions," corresponding roughly with the various counties, to "Branches" and "Posts," a Branch being a unit of over one hundred members and a Post a smaller unit. Any five men who have seen service in this War may apply to Headquarters to The houses in the towns are very wise Not with the kindly wisdom old age brings, Cottages have this that stand alone, And look upon the road with peaceful eyes But with a silent wisdom of their own, A dull acceptance of all men and things, They learn it from each other. Through long days They stand in two straight weary rows and stare Across at one another with a gaze form a Post, which shall consist of at least ten mem- bers. As soon as the membership has reached a hundred, the Post automatically becomes a Branch. Post and Branches send representatives to meetings of the Divisional Council. The Divisional Council is in close association with the National Head- quarters, and also with Headquarters in London. By this system Branches and Posts can do a great deal on their own initiative, and can refer larger matters for the decision of their division, or, if necessary, pass them through to London, with the result that every question, be it large or small, receives adequate attention. The various Branches and Posts will attend to any appeals for advice or assistance from discharged men living in their neighbourhood. They will preserve and decorate monuments erected to those who have fallen. They will support War Museums and compile records of the services rendered to the nation by her children, and by every means in their power they will strive to inculcate succeeding generations with that spirit of patriotism and self- sacrifice which has carried the Peoples of the Empire so gloriously through the troubles and dangers of this war. Besides this, they will organise social functions of all kinds so as to keep in touch with each other the men who have fought side by side in the trenches, or have watched for weary hours amidst the cold and gloom of the high seas. The feeling of unity which has united for a common object all political parties, Tory and Socialist, Unionist and Nationalist, Liberal and Labour, all religious creeds, Catholic and Protestant, Mystic and Materialist, all social grades, peasant and peer, miner and millionaire,-this will be perpetuated into a national quality welding our race together, not merely against the Central Powers, but against all those forces of class suspicion, of religious rancour, of political hatred, of poverty, and of disease that are the everlasting enemies of mankind. A Comrade. SUBURBAN HOUSES. Of sombre dead indifference. If they speak, It is at night when all the blinds are drawn, And street lamps only glimmer everywhere And then their voices are so tired and weak That they soon die in silence. They are born With this half-hearted, half-complacent air, They never are alone, but always so They gaze across, each in a thoughtful row. D. W. Bonarjee.