One of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting wrote in February, apropos of the
human element in the work:
"There was a great deal of human element in the start with its various
mistakes. The Queen wished, on the breaking out of war, to start the
Guild in such a way as to prevent the waste and overlapping which
occurred in the Boer War.... The fact that the ladies connected with
the work have toiled daily and unceasingly for seven months is the
most wonderful part of it all."
Before Christmas nine hundred and seventy thousand belts and socks
were collected and sent as a special gift to the soldiers at the
front, from the Queen and the women of the empire. That in itself is
an amazing record of efficiency.
It is rather comforting to know that there were mistakes in the
beginning. It is so human. It is comforting to think of this
exceedingly human Queen being a party to them, and being divided
between annoyance and mirth as they developed. It is very comforting
also to think that, in the end, they were rectified.
We had a similar situation during our Civil War. There were mistakes
then also, and they too were rectified. What the heroic women of the
North and South did during that great conflict the women of Great
Britain are doing to-day. They are showing the same high and
courageous spirit, the same subordination of their personal griefs to
the national cause, the same cheerful relinquishment of luxuries.
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