nil. NEW GENERATION.
[To TH2 EDITOR OF TEE 5ProTATOR."] Sra,—We are anxious to draw your attention to the Women's League of Service dining-rooms for mothers. This League, the head office of which is at 31a Mortimer Street, W., has now in London and its vicinity the following dining-rooms, where daily dinners are served free, or at a cost of a halfpenny or a penny a meal, according to the case, to expectant and nursing mothers :- 26 Cumming Street, King's Cross ; 36 Lisson Street, Marylebone ; 111 Bridge Road West, Battersea; 188 Blythe Road, Hammer- smith ; 49 Church Street Minories, Stepney ; 184 Canterbury Road, Croydon.
At this time of stress and want it seems, perhaps, one of the nation's greatest duties to look after women who are doing their highest duty to the nation in providing it with the new generation, and to help them to make that generation physically and mentally fit to take up the work of the world. Many of these children's fathers are now fighting for us, and surely we shall wish them, when they come back to their homes, to find that in their absence we have gladly borne the charge of looking after the women and children in the time of their greatest need; and for those women whose husbands do not come back to them, and who have given their greatest gift to their country, let us at any rate do all in our power to make them the mothers of healthy children, instead of victims of scrofula, rickets, tuberculosis, and other ills, too often the result of under-feeding in the pm-natal period. These dining-rooms feed women of the poor class in which the last person in the family to be fed is always the mother, and by giving them daily, during these months before and after the birth of their children, a dinner which is all that it should be, we are helping to provide, as well as a fine citizen for the future generation, a mother who is able now to face the daily struggle better and who has the strength to keep her home as it should be kept. In this moment when we must all think of economy this charity is one which is doing a great work in the most economical as well as the most enlightened way. The dining-rooms are under the supervision of .„ualified medical women and are models of clean- liness. The food is of excellent quality and of the sort needed by the women, and it is provided at the lowest cost possible. In the grey lives of these women the daily time in the dining- room is often the one bright spot, and there they can get, not only food for their bodies, but help and friendship from the workers and medical advice for their babies, who are weighed weekly by the medical woman at each centre. These dining-rooms have been quietly doing their splendid work for the nation for some years, but in the present crisis the number of women asking for help grows daily larger. The dining-rooms feed civil as well as military and naval wives, and are entirely undenominational, nnsectarian, and unpolitical, and the " waiting list " is crying for help. We are sure if the work were more widely known many would eagerly respond to its cry and help these hungry mothers and their little ones, and by doing so help in the best possible way the England of the future.
Any donations or subscriptions will be most gratefully received, and should be paid to Dudley Cooke, Esq., Chartered Accountant, 44 Gresham Street, E.C., who will at once forward a receipt for the same. Offers of personal service at the dining-rooms will also be most welcome—We are, Sir, &e., MARIAN LrreLs.
H. D. RAWNELEY (Canon). MARY SCHARLIBB (M.D., M.S.).
J. 8. Risme RUSSELL (M.D., F.R.C.P.).
VICTOR HORSLEY (F.R.S., B.S., F.R.C.S., M.D.):
[This admirable organization has our deepest sympathy. If the heroes fall, let us take care that those who come to fill their places are worthy of their fathers. One would like 1914 to give us a record crop of babies.—En. Spectator.]
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