WOMEN SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

(To THE EDITOR OP THE 'SrEcrATOR."] S1R,—The crowded meeting at the Imperial Institute' addressed by Mr. Chamberlain upon the encouragement of women's emigration to South Africa, and the sympathetic advocacy of the proposals then submitted in the columns of the Press,- render it clear that the British nation is not unmindful of the claim of her lands beyond the seas. The moment is approaching when -with the close of the war sterling women of every class will be required. in South Africa to take their part in the work of restoration and consolidation.

Many employments and professions are already. awaiting

them, and as the country becomes more settled fresh open- ings of all sorts will arise. Women of proved suitability are prepared to go, and the only barrier to an extensive dev_lop- meat of this essential movement is the lack of funds.

Financial support is needed for the following purposes

(1) Hostels at Cape Town and at the chief centres, such /17 Durban, Pretoria, Kimberley, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Bulawayo, Salisbury, &c., where women and girls can be received for a few days on arrival, and where if they have daily engagements they may reside permanently. Each of these hostels would be also an employment bureau for every kind of woman's work, and would require a capable salaried lady superintendent to manage the home and the employment bureau and to act as correspondent between employer and employed.

(2) Provision for the proper care and guidance of women throughout the journey from England to their final destination in South Africa.

(3) erants in aid of passages from England to South Africa when the traveller cannot afford the whole cost, or loans to be repaid within a given period.

(4) The enlargement of the secretarial department of the Women's Emigration Association. It is obvious that with the wide extension of operations which is indicated the existing hard-wroked staff must pal force be supplemented, and though voluntary workers will in the future, as in the past, render their untiring and invaluable services, certain additions to the salaried officials are essential.

Englishmen and Englishwomen must alike desire for our new territories and for South Africa generally the same ordered, wholesome, law-abiding traditions as are to be found in the Old Country ; and these can only be built up on a lasting basis by rendering life possible there as here for women of refinement and repute, whether as teachers, nurses, secre- taries, typists, telegraph or telephone clerks, sempstresses, or household assistants. But we would appeal for funds not only to help those who go to earn their daily bread, but also to enable the wives, the daughters, and the sisters of settlers to join their belongings in the new country. Many a man could make a home for his wife or sister but for the initial cost of her passage and the difficulties of the journey for inexperi- enced women. Openings in the new territories are declined by men at the front because they cannot bring out those dependent upon them in England. They need that the ocean be bridged for them by kindly forethought, by experienced and economical organisation, by suitable protection, and by carefully adjusted financial assistance. It is surely not much to ask that we to whom domestic comfort is a matter of course should contribute in these ways to make a home life possible for those upon whom the future of South Africa depends. Subscriptions may be sent to the treasurer, South African Fund, British Women's Emigration Association, the Imperial Institute, South Kensington.—We are, Sir, &c.,

ELLEN JOYCE,

Louisa M. KNIGHTLEY, ELEANOR J. CHUTE, EDITH LYTTELTON GELL,

MARY BENSON.

[We most heartily endorse the above, and trust that the appeal for subscriptions will meet with a liberal response.

Those who desire to help on the settlement, and to share in the work of making British South Africa take its place beside

Canada and Australia in the Empire, cannot do better than support this movement for women's emigration. ED.

Spectator.]