REST-ROOM FOR GIRLS AT THE FRANCO- BRITISH EXHIBITION.
[To TUN EDITOR 01 Till "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,—Since July 11th, when you kindly acknowledged the sum of 220 108. as the result of my letter inserted in the Spectator, I have received the following additional donations, which bring the total to 226 17s. :— s. d. & d.
Xre. tTlick Weatberell S. M. W 0 0 10 7 0 0 Mrs. Joicey A Friend 5 0 5 0 5 0
The chairman of our Rest-Room Committee, the Hon. Mrs. Pelham, who also originated the scheme, now assures me that our financial position at the closing of the Exhibition is satisfactory. The 2300 paid to the authorities for the erection of our small building was found to have been more than the actual cost. Late in the season a second and similar building was offered to us, but as we were not prepared to provide furniture and staff for a few weeks only, we anticipate the advantages to the employees of the duplicate Rest-rooms during next year's Exhibition. The subscription for members of the Rest-room was one penny weekly ; the number of members on the books was considerably over a thousand. The room could not possibly accommodate more than fifteen members at one time, so that the garden ground, which was granted through the kindness of some members of the Executive Committee, proved of the greatest possible service in sun, wind, or rain to the hundreds Who attended daily. By offering to pay extra on the cost of the building of the room, two lavatories were added for the use of our members. This reduced our space, and it should have been realised earlier that the room was almost useless without this accommodation. The little tea- and coffee-stall which I opened in the garden on June lab in the name of the National Union of Women Workers proved a great attraction and benefit to the girls, and a very happy experience to me. I served the simple meals, varying from lid. to 4d., every day for thirteen of the fifteen weeks that the stall was open. It was entirely self-supporting. The gills made no trouble of any of the disadvantages from the absence of shelter, of tables, or from the inexperience of their stall-owner. In fact, their graceful acknowledgments of my services on the afternoon we closed will now remain among my pleasantest recollections. The stall "takings" amounted to 2284 12s. 8d., and after paying all expenses I have a balance of 246, which the National Union of Women Workers promise to devote to hastening necessary reforms in connexion with exhibitions, as far as they are able. These reforms. I hope your readers will agree, are pressing, seeing that neither the Factory nor the Shop Assistants Acts touch exhibition employees; that the small Rest-room and garden were the only places of privacy and rest reserved for thousands of the girls employed in tile Exhibition ; that the two lavatories were the only such places free to them until September 1st, when a slight relaxation in enforcing the reading of the Public Health Act was granted; and that my tiny coffee-stall was so generously patronised because there alone could the employees get served quickly and enjoy the opportunities for independence and satisfaction through the special provision for their proper needs.—I am,
Sir, &c., EDITH H. GLOVER.
10 Leonard Place, Kensington, W.
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