The work of the War Refugees Committee

I have been asked to speak to-day about the work of the War Refugees Committee.

The work of the War Refugees Committee is intimately associated with what will, I believe, hereafter be regarded as one of the most acutely pathetic chapters of our island history. Because we are an island, because a stretch of sea lies between us and Europe, because, above all, we have a Navy which for a thousand years has known how to defend that strip of sea, we have been able, not for the first time in our history, to offer refuge to a people stricken and driven out from their proper home.

There is no need for me to speak now of what Belgium has done—we all have the knowledge in our hearts. In the Titanic struggle in which we are engaged Belgium bore for a time the burden of the world, and the world can never forget, and never repay.

We all remember the shock of horror with which we read the first accounts of the atrocities perpetrated at Visé and Liège. But we have almost forgotten that only a few days before the outbreak of this war our eyes were turned towards another theatre of disturbance, and the outbreak of civil war in Ireland was the catastrophe we feared. For a moment I must recall it in connection with the refugees, for, strange as it may seem, the War Refugees Committee is, in a sense, the lineal descendant of the Ulster Council.

The preparations of Ulster in the early summer of last year were sufficiently public to be known to anyone who chose to be acquainted with them. Like most Irish Protestants, I was aware that in view of coming contingencies arrangements had been made for the removal of many thousands of women and children from the area which was likely to become a theatre of war. These arrangements had been made with great thoroughness. Registration and all other necessary forms had been prepared, transport had been organized and safe homes had been secured in England. The outbreak of European war mercifully averted the misfortune of war in Ireland, and when the news of the first atrocities came through from Belgium they suggested the idea, “Why not use the Ulster organization to get the Belgian women and children out if possible from under the German guns?” At that time we had of course no conception of the development which the Refugee movement was ultimately to take. The thought in my mind was mainly of women and children. I telegraphed to Captain Craig to ask whether, if such a scheme proved feasible, he would let me have the use of the Ulster organization. He telegraphed back immediately that everything they had was at my disposal for such a purpose. He sent me all their registration forms—forms which we are to-day using at the War Refugees Committee—and put me immediately in touch with people who had the necessary information. In twenty-four hours I had the embryo of an organization in my hands.

But it was evidently necessary to change what I may call the “sentiment base.” The next step was to approach the Catholic Church and to ask of Cardinal Bourne that the Catholic institutions of Great Britain and Ireland might be circularized in order to ascertain how many homes of undoubted security could be placed at the disposal of Belgian refugees. I was received with a cordiality which, I would like to say here once for all, the Catholic Church has constantly maintained towards the movement. I was assured by Monsignor Bidwell, whom Cardinal Bourne deputed to discuss the matter with me, that assuming the movement to be properly organized and to be viewed with favour by the Government, the Catholic authorities would be very ready to help.

With this amount of preparation I approached the Foreign Office, and was assured of the sympathy of Sir Edward Grey. The Local Government Board signified their approval, and the Foreign Office was good enough ultimately to arrange an interview for me with the Belgian Minister, directing me that in placing the scheme before him I was to inquire what steps his Government, in the event of their viewing the proposal with favour, would take to make the scheme known in Belgium. In accordance with these instructions I laid the scheme before the Comte de Lalaing, and in due course an answer was received from the Belgian Government accepting the proposal with gratitude, and saying that they would make the scheme known in Belgium, and would direct intending refugees to come to Ostend, whence they understood that we would take steps to bring them away.

While these negotiations were in progress the position in Belgium was becoming every day more acute, and efforts which had already been started in other quarters to alleviate this distress were suddenly brought into line with my endeavour. Lord Lytton had begun collecting contributions towards the Belgian Relief Fund from exhibitors at the recent Brussels and Ghent Exhibitions. This had led Mr. Wintour, of the Exhibitions Branch of the Board of Trade, to pay a visit to Ostend, where the homeless refugees were already congregated in large numbers. On August 22nd I was informed by Mr. Reyntiens and Mr. Wintour that they had the promise of a transport, from the Admiralty, with which they were immediately going to fetch over refugees, and that they hoped to return on the following Monday with a ship-load. I asked Mr. Reyntiens how many they proposed to bring back. He said “As many as we can get—anything from 100 to 1,000.” To the inquiry “What do you propose to do with your refugees when you bring them back?” his reply was, in effect, “We leave that to you!” There was no time to discuss the matter; it was necessary for him to go at once and get his papers ready, and I was left on Saturday morning in full sympathy with the adventure, but with the knowledge that on Monday I might be expected to receive in England 1,000 refugees.

No Committee had as yet been formed. It was evident that between Saturday and Monday a Committee had to be created. I will not delay you with a relation of the details of that Saturday and Sunday afternoon, interesting as they were at the moment to those engaged in the work. The only condition which I made was that the Committee should have no politics and no religious distinctions, and it is enough now to say that thanks mainly to the exertions of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton and Mr. H. E. Morgan a Committee was formed under the required conditions and in the required time, Lord Hugh Cecil consenting to be our Chairman and Lord Gladstone our Treasurer.

By the kindness of Mr. F. Norie-Miller, General Manager of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, Ltd., offices were placed at our disposal entirely free of charge. The nucleus of a clerical and typewriting staff was secured. A name was chosen. An appeal was sent to the papers on Sunday night, and as a net result of our exertions we were enabled on the following Monday morning to take possession as a Committee of the empty offices which have since developed into the well-known headquarters of the War Refugees Committee at Aldwych. That first morning we had hardly pens and ink, we had not chairs to sit upon, the offices were almost entirely without furniture, and while we were trying to organize our immediate plan of operations the response to our Appeal, which had appeared only in that morning’s papers, took the embarrassing if at the same time encouraging form of no less than 1,000 letters, all containing offers of hospitality and help.

The response of the country to the movement was absolutely phenomenal. The 1,000 letters of that day became 2,000 on the following day, then 3,000, then 4,000, then 5,000, and on the day on which we received 5,000 letters there were also 1,200 callers at the Office. Every letter and every visitor brought proposals of help in one form or another. Within a fortnight we had at our disposal hospitality for 100,000 persons. Cheques, clothing, food, offers of personal service flowed in upon us. I could spend hours rather than minutes in telling you the details of that first outpouring of public generosity. The sense of the country was made absolutely clear that if it could not share the acute suffering caused to the people of Belgium by the war it desired to diminish that suffering by every means that it possessed. These offers came not from one class nor from one place, but from all classes and from all places. Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Nonconformist, high and low, rich and poor united, all unaware, in a spontaneous tribute of sympathy and respect. Nations, like individuals, have their moments of unconscious self-revelation. It was a moment which unmistakably revealed the heart of England.

The enthusiasm and volume of the movement were cheering, and no offers touched us more deeply than the hundreds we received, often on postcards, from the very poor. But the suddenness of the movement brought with it accompaniments which it must be admitted were difficult to cope with. We were soon accused, and justly accused, of not answering our letters, of not acknowledging our cheques, of not receiving our visitors with due consideration. It was all true! though it remained so only for a few days. To have done otherwise was a physical impossibility, for what were we among so many? We were only a willing company of amateurs suddenly called upon to deal with the conditions of a large business created in twenty-four hours. And while this volume of external business was pouring in the true object of our existence remained in our opinion the providing of homes for our coming guests. We contented ourselves with safeguarding our cheques, and gave our thoughts to the refugees.

They began to come on the first day. They increased in numbers, not being immediately brought in ship-loads, but trickling through on their own account from various sources to the number of perhaps 100 or 150 a day. Our first difficulty with regard to finding homes for them was met by the kindness of Sir James Dunlop-Smith, who obtained from the India Office permission to place at our disposal a small house at 49, St. George’s Road, usually occupied by the King’s orderlies, but standing at the moment empty and furnished. This was the first place of refuge offered in this country to Belgians. It seemed to us a suitable coincidence that it should come, even indirectly, from the King. The Borough Council of Camberwell was, if my memory serves me rightly, the next to offer us beds for Belgian refugees. They had organized Dulwich Baths as a hospital, and they placed at our disposal between 80 and 100 beds. Battersea followed their example. Private offers were added to these, and in two or three days we had a couple of hundred beds upon which we could count.

We reached the third day of our existence before any news came of the ship-load of refugees for whose reception the Committee had been so hastily organized. It was on Wednesday evening at about half-past seven o’clock, as we were separating after a heavy day’s work, that a telegram was brought in saying, “One thousand refugees arriving Folkestone to-night. Can you take 500 in London tomorrow?” The moment had come. We afterwards discovered that this was not “the” ship, and as a matter of fact Mr. Wintour’s refugees never did come over in a special transport chartered for them. I give you our impressions, however, only as we received them then. We had provided with the greatest difficulty for 250. To provide suddenly for 500 more seemed at first sight impossible. But to let you have one instance of the early work I will describe how it was done.

Among the offers which had been made to us was one from the Army and Navy Stores proposing to lend us an empty shirt factory conveniently situated just opposite Victoria Station. It was in a perfectly sanitary condition, clean, with gas, light, and water laid on, but stark empty. At eight o’clock on Wednesday evening we accepted the offer. Mrs. Walter Cave took direction in this particular act of energy, and I believe she was up all that night. The Army and Navy Stores let us have beds at cost price. The Chairman of the Rowton Houses lent us crockery and linen. Willing help came from every side, and the result was achieved that before three on the following afternoon the shirt factory had been converted into a hostel, where 250 beds were made up with clean sheets and pillow-cases; a kitchen was arranged downstairs with eight cooking-stoves; dining-tables were ready laid; and a hot dinner for several hundred people awaited the arrival of the refugees. Our first batch of 250 arrived there that afternoon. We disposed of the others in different places, and from that day, though we continued to receive refugees in London at the rate of several hundreds per day, and were often at our wits’ end what to do, not one who reached our hands was ever left without food and lodging.

The experience of this first week gave us the formation of the principal Departments of the War Refugees Committee. I do not propose now to detain you with any full description of our organization. For anyone who is interested the details are recorded in the Blue-Book issued by the Departmental Committee of the Local Government Board appointed to consider and report on questions arising in connection with the Reception and Employment of the Belgian Refugees in this country. I will indicate merely the framework of the machine which circumstances immediately brought into operation.